Pneumatic and Percussive Penetration Approaches for Heat Flow Probe Emplacement on Robotic Lunar Missions

Zacny, K.; Nagihara, S.; Hedlund, Magnus; Paulsen, G.; Shasho, J.; Mumm, E.; Kumar, Nishant Ganesh; Szwarc, Timothy; Chu, Philip; Craft, J.; Taylor, Patrick T.; Milam, M. B.

doi:10.1007/s11038-013-9423-5

Cited by 16 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The heat flow probe manifested on Blue Ghost 1 (Nagihara et al 2020) uses a pneumatic drill, which is considered more robust than the mole (Zacny et al 2013), to penetrate the lunar regolith. It is planned that the probe will measure the regolith temperature and thermal conductivity at 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 m depths during 2 full Earth days.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-landing Assessment of the Surface and Shallow Subsurface Thermal Setting of Mare Crisium of the Moon for the Heat Flow Measurement Planned on the Blue Ghost 1 Mission

Nagihara

2023

Planet. Sci. J.

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In 2024, under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, a robotic lander will touch down in Mare Crisium of the Moon and deploy a heat flow probe. Ideally, the probe should penetrate the regolith deep enough (1.5–2 m) to avoid the influence of insolation, but it is a major challenge to excavate such a hole on a robotic mission. The present study assesses the insolation-induced temperature fluctuation in the shallower subsurface of the landing site in case the heat flow probe does not reach past that depth. The assessment was based on a newly constructed, one-dimensional heat conduction model, which accounted for the history of solar heat intake at the landing site for the past 100 yr. The thermal properties of the subsurface regolith of the model were constrained by the previous surface temperature observations by flyovers of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the subsurface thermal measurement data from Apollo 17. The model showed that the amplitude of the insolation-induced annual subsurface temperature fluctuation is modulated by the 18.6 yr period precession of the Moon. The model also showed that the amplitude of this annual wave would be at (or close to) its minimum in 2024, when the mission would take place. Even though the thermal wave may be felt at depths greater than 1.5 m, because of its small amplitude, the thermal gradient in the depth range from 1 to 1.5 m would be within several percent of the gradient representative of the endogenic heat flow.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-landing Assessment of the Surface and Shallow Subsurface Thermal Setting of Mare Crisium of the Moon for the Heat Flow Measurement Planned on the Blue Ghost 1 Mission

Nagihara

2023

Planet. Sci. J.

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“…A Russian research institute named VNII Transmash first proposed the concept of impact penetration. 12 Hereafter, The Space Research Center in Polish Academy of Sciences started the preliminary research work on impact penetrators and developed a prototype model MUPUS. The prototype needs to be equipped with a mechanical arm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical simulation on interaction process between impact penetrator and lunar soil particles for lunar subsurface exploration

Shen

Deng

et al. 2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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Unmanned in-situ exploration is an important technique to study the physical and mechanical parameters of lunar composition and evolution. The impact penetrator is an effective device for in-situ detection of the lunar soil profile at predetermined depth. Because of the lack of real lunar soil samples, it is very difficult to study and evaluate the performance of the impact penetrator. In order to truly reflect the interaction between the impact penetrator and lunar soil particles, a simulation model of the lunar soil body was established by means of discrete-element analysis, and the model parameters were matched and verified by the experimental method. Based on this model, the interaction behaviors between the penetrators with different head configurations and the lunar soil body were simulated. The stress field distribution in the lunar soil body and particle movement patterns during the penetrating process were revealed, which reflects the working principle and performance of the penetrator. The numerical simulation on the interaction process between the impact penetrator and lunar soil particles provides a feasible and effective method for the design and optimization of the penetrator, which will contribute to the development of lunar subsurface in-situ exploration technologies.

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“…However, the change in the soil temperature detected by heat flow detectors will be influenced by external factors if sensor depth is shallow. Therefore, the heat flow detector must be placed 3 m below the soil surface to obtain accurate internal heat flow data [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics Research and Parameter Optimization of Planetary Penetrators

et al. 2019

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Impact-type penetrators are devices that apply the impact generated by their internal components to penetrate the soil. The penetration effect of the impact-type penetrators is affected by the physical parameters (e.g., mass and stiffness) of their internal constituent elements. Therefore, optimal parameters must be obtained by using a dynamic impact penetrator model to maximize the dive distance of each impact. However, the dynamic impact penetrator models are nonlinear and difficult to describe. Thus, in this paper, this work proposes a segmentation method for modeling the penetrator motion to establish an accurate dynamic model that can be divided into four states. Buffer spring pre-compression, which is introduced as a new influencing parameter to improve the performance of the penetrator, and the genetic algorithm is used for the optimization in accordance with the characteristics of the required optimization parameter set. Parameter stability is then analyzed by considering the actual project application. Then, the control variable method is employed to explore the influence of changing the obtained parameters on the penetration effect. Finally, a processing prototype designed on the basis of the acquired parameters is used for the experimental verification. This work addresses the complexity of the dynamics model of penetration and the difficulty encountered in determining the parameter values.

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Pneumatic and Percussive Penetration Approaches for Heat Flow Probe Emplacement on Robotic Lunar Missions

Cited by 16 publications

References 19 publications

Pre-landing Assessment of the Surface and Shallow Subsurface Thermal Setting of Mare Crisium of the Moon for the Heat Flow Measurement Planned on the Blue Ghost 1 Mission

Pre-landing Assessment of the Surface and Shallow Subsurface Thermal Setting of Mare Crisium of the Moon for the Heat Flow Measurement Planned on the Blue Ghost 1 Mission

Numerical simulation on interaction process between impact penetrator and lunar soil particles for lunar subsurface exploration

Dynamics Research and Parameter Optimization of Planetary Penetrators

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