DUSTBUSTER / HANDHELD VACUUM The Dustbuster was made for the Apollo space missions. It started out as a portable hand held drill used for collecting core samples from the moon's surface. It was used on Apollo 15, 16, and 17. Each piece of core was about 40 c.m. It could drill up to 10 feet. Blacker&Decker, a company working with NASA to develop the drill, used a special computer program to make the drill use very little power. Later Blacker&Decker used that technology to help them make the Dustbuster which is a handheld and cordless vacuum. The Dustbuster has a storage rack that also serves a recharger.