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.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Vertical Transportation of Lunar Regolith and Ice Particles Using Vibrating Tube


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2021-08-25




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown




    Lunar Regolith Particles In Outposts

    Levy, F. / Petrov, G. / Adams, C. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2009


    Lunar Regolith Particles In Outposts

    Lévy, François / Adams, Constance / Petrov, Georgi | AIAA | 2009


    Vertical Transport of Lunar Regolith and Ice Particles Using Electrodynamic Traveling Wave

    Kawamoto, Hiroyuki / Hata, Kazuhiro / Shibata, Takahiko | ASCE | 2021


    Lunar Regolith

    Gies, J. V. / American Society for Civil Engineers; Aerospace Division | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1996