Study on Mole Type Drilling Robot for Lunar Subsurface Exploration

Unmanned deep space explorations have received a lot of attention in recent years. Some missions to land safely and explore on the surface of the moon or other planets are proposed and planned in the world. In Japan, lunar lander-rover mission is also planned, which is called SELENE-B. In these missions, it is required to perform sampling, conduct in-situ analysis of geological samples and deploy devices for measurement and observation. Many researchers have studied and developed sample acquisition systems and driller or corer systems. Recently deep drillers or penetrating systems have been required to obtain deep data for subsurface exploration. In lunar mission, it is needed to excavate the regolith layer, which covers the lunar surface, in depth of several meters. Some suggestions for drilling on the lunar surface have already been made. However, there are no schemes that satisfy the requirement. This study proposes a mole-like robot which is maneuverable in regolith. Then, a scheme is also proposed, for the robot to move forward in the soil. Finally, the moving mechanism is studied by powder mechanical analyses and some experiments. The experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed robot.

近年来，无人驾驶的深空探索引起了很多关注。在世界范围内提出并计划了一些安全地降落并在月球表面或其他行星表面探索的任务。在日本，还计划了Lunar Lander-Rover任务，称为Selene-B。在这些任务中，需要对地质样本进行采样，进行原位分析，并部署设备进行测量和观察。许多研究人员研究并开发了样本采集系统以及钻机或Corer系统。最近，需要深层钻探器或穿透系统来获取地下探索的深度数据。在月球任务中，需要深入挖掘覆盖农历表面的岩石层。已经提出了一些在月球表面进行钻探的建议。但是，没有任何方案满足要求。这项研究提出了一个类似摩尔的机器人，该机器人在Regolith中是可以操纵的。然后，还提出了一个方案，供机器人在土壤中向前移动。最后，通过粉末机械分析和一些实验研究了移动机制。实验结果表明提出的机器人的可行性。