Research On Surface Sampler Of Lunar Exploration

Human is full of curiosity and imagination to the moon since the ancient time,the progress of modern science and technology provides platform for lunarexploration, which is an important content of China’s space activities. Launch alander to the moon, study its soil and rock, then take them back, are the key steps ofthat exploration. The lunar surface sampler is the main tool to collect the lunar soil.This paper designs a surface sampler which has the initial sample collection ability,and verifies its functions by experiments.First, this paper reviews the current development of the surface sampler.According to the system performance requirements and sampling workflow, thepaper proposes an overall program, and designs a surface sampler which has theinitial sample collection ability and is composed by shovel mechanism, tap&filtermechanism, unlocking mechanism and bottom locking mechanism. The design of allparts of the sampler is completed by using3D modeling software. The major partsare made strength checking by using finite element software. The motors of thesampler are controlled by using the existing hardware circuit. The circuit and themechanism totally constitute an integral end effecter.Then, the paper uses ADAMS to analyze the surface sampler. By comparingsimulation results under different conditions, the paper determines the teeth numberof the unmoral gear in the tap&filter mechanism. The required output torques of themotors is got by simulating the tapping process and the unlocking process. Thesimulation results and the force analysis results become the basis of motor selection.The unlocking mechanism’s tracking characteristic of position closed-loop, whichwas based on PD control, is simulated by using cooperative simulation based onADAMS and Matlab/Simulink. These simulation results provide reference to theexperiment debugging.Finally, the paper finishes the functional verification experiment of the tap&filter mechanism and the unlocking mechanism based on the G2HITPlatformsoftware. Combined with practical task demands, the paper designs anupper-computer software to control the manipulator, and uses it to complete theground based sampling experiment of the surface sampler. The experimental resultsdemonstrate that the motors applying the PD control algorithm can effectively trackthe planning trajectory and realize the tap&filter and unlocking functions. Thesurface sampler could sample the soil between0and50mm depth and unlock toseparate at last. The surface sampler finally get1.2kg sample, fulfils the systemperformance requirements.