This two-volume set includes the latest principles behind the processes of drilling and excavation on Earth and other planets. It covers the categories of drills, the history of drilling and excavation, various drilling techniques and associated issues, rock coring (acquisition, damage control, caching and transport, restoration of "in-situ" conditions and data interpretation), as well as unconsolidated soil drilling and borehole stability. It describes the drilling process from basic science and associated process of breaking and penetrating various media and the required hardware and the process of excavation and analysis of the sampled media.

Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen is the Supervisor of the Electroactive Technologies Group (http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/) and a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab/Caltech, Pasadena, CA. In 1979, he received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. His research is focused on electro-mechanics including planetary sample handling mechanisms, novel actuators that are driven by such materials as piezoelectric and EAP (also known as artificial muscles) and biomimetics.

Dr. Kris Zacny is a Senior Research Scientist, Vice President and Director of Exploration Technology Group at Honeybee Robotics. His expertise includes terrestrial and extraterrestrial robotic drilling, excavation, sample handling and processing, geotechnical systems, and sensors. Dr. Zacny received his PhD (UC Berkeley, 2005) in Geotechnical Engineering with an emphasis on Mars drilling, ME (UC Berkeley, 2001) in Petroleum Engineering with emphasis on Drilling and Materials Science, and BSc cum laude (U. Cape Town, 1997) in Mechanical Engineering.