Design of Handheld Corer for Lunar Regolith Based on Particle Directional Flow Method

Abstract

Obtaining lunar regolith with primary bedding information is one of the important targets in lunar-landing and manual sampling mission. A large resistance and low coring ratio will appear when using a conventional penetration-type corer to get lunar regolith. An efficient solution is to discharge the lunar regolith particles that contact the coring pipe. The particles can flow directionally on an asymmetric friction surface under vibration. Based on this method, a designing scheme of a handheld corer for astronaut is proposed. The pivotal component structures are designed and analyzed in detail. The coring performance is studied by using the numerical simulation software EDEM based on the discrete element method. The result indicates that the corer can increase the coring ratio and reduce the resistance observably, compared with the penetration-type corer.

Keywords

lunar regolith particle / directional flow / asymmetric friction surface / vibration / corer