Vertical Transportation of Lunar Regolith and Ice Particles Using Vibrating Tube
Hiroyuki Kawamoto, Kubo Keita, Ryo Kikumiya, Masato Adachi
Abstract
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is planning to operate an uncrewed rover on the Moon to search for water ice, which exists at the polar regions of the Moon. The rover’s 1.5-m-long drill will penetrate the regolith layer of the lunar surface and capture ice particles mixed with the regolith. A transportation system for crushed ice particles mixed with the lunar regolith has been developed utilizing a vibration transportation mechanism that realizes the lifting of particles to physical and chemical analyzers installed on the rover. In this mechanism, the friction force between the inner wall of the tube and particles mainly plays the role of conveying particles upward while the tube inserted vertically into the bulk of the regolith is oscillating up and down. A parametric experiment was conducted to deduce the optimal configuration and operational conditions, and it was achieved that simulant particles and crushed ice particles mixed with lunar regolith are transported through the long tube. In addition, it was predicted by numerical calculations based on the discrete element method that the transportation performance in the lunar environment is better than that on Earth owing to low gravitational acceleration on the Moon.