Micro Quantitative Sampler for Lunar Regolith: Design and Validation

Abstract

Based on the environment and conditions of lunar polar regions， and the actual demand of scientific analysis instrument for regolith samples， a volatile extraction method was proposed， which coupled sampling and volatile extraction. A kind of micro quantitative sampler was designed with some sampling pieces assembled in a sampling tube to complete lunar regolith sampling. After sampling， the sample was placed in the extraction device to be heated， which heated the regolith inside it indirectly and rendered it volatile. In this paper， in view of the requirements of the sampling function of extraterrestrial objects，the working principle and key structural parameters were designed， and the verification test of the performance of lunar regolith micro-sampling was carried out. The results showed that the lower the lunar soil moisture content was， the closer the sampling amount was to the target value. Preliminary heating tests show that the scheme can heat the sample to the target temperature at a specified power. The preliminary heating test shows that the sampler can be used for future in-situ analysis of the volatile of deep space exploration in China.

Keywords

lunar regolith / in-situ analysis / micro-quantitative sampling / sampler / volatile extraction