Investigation of the properties of icy lunar polar regolith simulants

Pitcher, Craig; Kömle, Norbert I.; Leibniz, Otto; Morales-Calderon, Odalys; Gao, Yang; Richter, Lutz

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2015.12.030

Cited by 36 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…This is partly dependent on the mass of excavated and processed material required by the ISRU processes that are being supported in the given mission scenario, since this determines the scale of the inlet as well as the arm. Areas that can accumulate soil during operation must be minimized by design and mitigation methods implemented. Test on the rover platform at analogue site and with icy regoliths: To further evaluate the applicability of this prototype and due to the proposed polar deployment zone of LUVMI‐X (Garcet et al, 2019; Losekamm et al, 2021), tests with icy regoliths or analogues prepared to comparable strength should be performed (Gertsch et al, 2006, 2008; Pitcher et al, 2016). Additionally, the mechanism is intended for a field analogue test with the rover in late 2021.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Test on the rover platform at analogue site and with icy regoliths: To further evaluate the applicability of this prototype and due to the proposed polar deployment zone of LUVMI‐X (Garcet et al, 2019; Losekamm et al, 2021), tests with icy regoliths or analogues prepared to comparable strength should be performed (Gertsch et al, 2006, 2008; Pitcher et al, 2016). Additionally, the mechanism is intended for a field analogue test with the rover in late 2021.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES³) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform

Just

Roy

Joy

et al. 2021

Journal of Field Robotics

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Future sustained human presence on the Moon will require us to make use of lunar resources. This in‐situ resource utilisation (ISRU) process will require suitable feedstock (i.e., lunar regolith) that has been both acquired and prepared (or beneficiated) to set standards. Acquisition of pre‐processed regolith, is an often overlooked engineering challenge in the demanding and low‐gravity environment of the lunar surface. Currently, regolith excavation and size separation are often developed independently of each other. Here, we present the Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES3), which is an engineered one‐system solution to combine the acquisition of lunar regolith as well as separate it into two distinct size fractions, and therefore, can assist to define the quality of the feedstock material for ISRU processes. Intended for use with a lightweight (40–60 kg) lunar rover (LUnar Volatiles Mobile Instrumentation‐X; LUVMI‐X) currently under development, the mechanism utilises vibrations to reduce excavation forces and facilitate size separation. Low excavation forces are crucial for lunar excavators to be deployable on lightweight robotic platforms as limited traction forces are available. The rationale behind the mechanism is explained, its capabilities in the support of science and ISRU are showcased, and results from several laboratory test campaigns, including tests of gravitational dry sieving of different regolith simulants, are presented. The LES3 can excavate up to 100 g in a single charge while maintaining excavation forces of less than 8 N and having a mass of less than 2 kg. Finally, areas of improvement for a second iteration of the design are presented and explained. The LES3 proof of concept shows that combining of regolith excavation and size‐separation in a single mechanism is feasible.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES³) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform

Just

Roy

Joy

et al. 2021

Journal of Field Robotics

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“…Numerous methods of adding water to lunar regolith and its analogues are described in the literature, including mixing the regolith with liquid water (Kleinhenz and Linne 2013) or hydrated mineral salt (Kleinhenz et al 2008), adding water vapour or dispersed water to regolith (Pitcher et al 2016), exposing regolith to a humidified carrier gas (Fuller and Agron 1976;Holmes and Gammage 1975;Robens et al 2007), and injecting water vapour into an evacuated chamber with regolith (Beck et al 2010;Poston et al 2013). A review of these methods (Reiss 2018b) hydration of lunar regolith simulants with water mass fractions in the range of 0.1 % to % by relatively simple means.…”

Section: Sample Hydrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The amount of water in the sample levels of relative humidity between 1 % and 70 % (section 3 'Sample Hydration'). One additional set of saturated samples was created by mixing 6.66 g sample with 1 ml distilled water (15 % mass content), in accordance with saturation levels determined by Pitcher et al (2016). The default sample mass for all runs was 33 mg to 36 mg, consistent with the ProSPA baseline sample size (27.7 mm³) and a measured bulk density for loosely poured NU-LHT-2M between 1.2 g/cm³ and 1.3 g/cm³.…”

Section: Volatiles Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal extraction of volatiles from the lunar regolith simulant NU-LHT-2M: Preparations for in-situ analyses on the Moon

Grill

Barber

2019

Planetary and Space Science

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The present work describes the end-to-end demonstration of enriching the lunar highland regolith simulant NU-LHT-2M with loosely adsorbed water, releasing this and other volatile compounds by thermal treatment in high-vacuum, and identifying the released volatile species through mass spectrometry. This demonstration was performed to characterise how different sample conditions will affect the in-situ measurements performed by the ProSPA gas analysis instrument that is to operate at the lunar south pole on board the Russian Luna-27 lander. A laboratory breadboard was set up that allows testing of variable parameter combinations, such as different initial water contents, particle sizes, quantities, and bulk densities of the sample, as well as different heating rates. Three distinct temperature-dependent phases of outgassing were identified. Between-50 °C and 300 °C loosely adsorbed volatiles, mainly water in a mass fraction of around 0.1 % to 0.2 %, were released from the samples. Above that the samples showed mineral decomposition which led to the release of trapped water, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide. It was shown that the gas pressure produced by outgassing of the volatile species in a continuously pumped system is noticeably higher if the sample is larger, contains smaller particles, or if a higher heating rate is applied. Highlights  NU-LHT-2M was hydrated with water in mass fractions around 0.1 %  In a ProSPA-like laboratory breadboard the water was extracted by heating  NU-LHT-2M releases the added volatile water below a temperature of °C  Different sample conditions develop different characteristic gas pressures  NU-LHT-2M releases trapped water, CO 2 , and H 2 S from decomposition above 300 °C

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“…The mission of Chang'e-5 lunar exploration project aims to obtain lunar subsurface regolith through a drilling and coring device, and return it to the Earth. Though the mechanical properties of the lunar regolith obtained by the Soviet Union and the United States have been analyzed and reported in the literature, the regolith materials at a specific site are not known [6,7]. The drill tool should have operative performance to adapt to lunar regolith with different mechanical properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Modeling Drilling Load in Lunar Regolith Simulant

Quan

Chen

Deng

et al. 2018

Chin. J. Mech. Eng.

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Drilling and coring, as effective ways to obtain lunar regolith along the longitudinal direction, are widely applied in the lunar sampling field. Conventionally, modeling of drill-soil interaction was divided into soil cutting and screw conveyance processes, ignoring the differences in soil mechanical properties between them. To improve the modeling accuracy, a hypothesis that divides the drill-soil interaction into four parts: cuttings screw conveyance, cuttings extruding, cuttings bulldozing, and in situ simulant cutting, is proposed to establish a novel model based on the passive earth pressure theory. An iterative numerical calculation method is developed to predict the drilling loads. A drilling and coring testbed is developed to conduct experimental tests. Drilling experiments indicate that the drilling loads calculated by the proposed model match well the experimental results. The proposed research provides the instructions to adopt a suitable drilling strategy to match the rotary and penetrating motions, to increase the safety and reliability of drilling control in lunar sampling missions.

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Investigation of the properties of icy lunar polar regolith simulants

Cited by 36 publications

References 13 publications

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES³) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES³) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform

Thermal extraction of volatiles from the lunar regolith simulant NU-LHT-2M: Preparations for in-situ analyses on the Moon

On Modeling Drilling Load in Lunar Regolith Simulant

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Investigation of the properties of icy lunar polar regolith simulants

Cited by 36 publications

References 13 publications

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES3) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES3) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform

Thermal extraction of volatiles from the lunar regolith simulant NU-LHT-2M: Preparations for in-situ analyses on the Moon

On Modeling Drilling Load in Lunar Regolith Simulant

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES³) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform

Development and test of a Lunar Excavation and Size Separation System (LES³) for the LUVMI‐X rover platform