Abstract: With the continued advancement of lunar resource development and utilization, the demand for excavation technologies capable of efficiently breaking hard lunar rocks has become increasingly urgent. Lunar mare basalt represents a particularly valuable resource due to its widespread distribution, enrichment in economically significant minerals such as ilmenite, and its ability to retain key information on lunar magmatic and geological evolution. Domestic and international engineering practices of lunar drilling and sampling are reviewed, and the technical challenges encountered are summarized. In parallel, the historical development and current progress of microwave-assisted rock breaking technologies are examined. Microwave heating has emerged as a promising technique due to its ability to generate thermal stresses, induce selective mineral heating, and initiate both microscopic versus macroscopic failure within hard rocks. Building on this foundation, a microwave-assisted mechanical rock-fragmentation method is proposed in this study. Laboratory experiments were conducted using a low-power, open-type microwave irradiation system on basalt specimens with chemical compositions closely similar to lunar mare basalts, with irradiation parameters systematically varied and the resulting damage patterns characterized. Subsequent hard-rock drilling tests were performed on untreated and microwave-irradiation specimens under constant thrust, rotation speed, and drilling duration. Key performance indicators, which included drilling depth, mechanical loading, and bit wear, were evaluated across different microwave treatment conditions. The results show that microwave preconditioning significantly enhances drilling performance by promoting internal crack propagation and thus reducing the mechanical strength of the basalt. After microwave irradiation, the maximum drilling depth increased by 46.33%, the maximum sample weight collected increased by 45.23%, and the average thrust force during drilling showed a maximum decrease of 18.30%. Overall, these findings demonstrate the substantial potential of integrating microwave-assisted technologies into future lunar excavation systems and provide valuable references for the design and optimization of equipment and operational parameters for hard-rock mining on the Moon.