Regolith Sampler Concept

Last crawled date: 1 year, 12 months ago

Approximately 0.4 kg without motors (0.7 kg with motors).

The system is envisioned to be attached to a robotic arm.

In concept, the auger should allow the system to be able to obtain rocks and regolith beneath the lunar surface (up to approximately 10 cm deep). The auger should be able to carry the regolith up to the surface. The regolith would fall off the top of the auger onto a chute. Located at the end of the chute are rods for filtering out rocks larger than 1.8 cm diameter. Anything smaller in diameter should drop into the sorter/conveyor below. Rocks that are larger than 0.8 cm diameter should land on top of the conveyor screw. Loose regolith smaller than 0.8 cm diameter should fall into the flute gaps. As the conveyor screw turns, it should push the rocks and regolith to the open end of the conveyor channel. The loose regolith should exit first out the bottom, whereas the rocks would exit at a different location, out the very end of the conveyor channel.

A second robotic arm is required to position the sample container beneath the conveyor channel to collect the rocks and regolith. The robotic arm can change the position of the container to alternate the layers of regolith and rocks.

(Detailed/refined description to be added)