Drilling power consumption and soil conveying volume performances of lunar sampling auger

Abstract

The sampling auger used in lunar sampling and return mission is to transmit power and convey soil, and its performance is the key factor of the whole mission. However, there is currently a lack of the optimization research on soil conveying volume and power consumption models in auger structure design. To provide the drilled object, the simulation lunar soil, whose physical and mechanical property is the same as the real soil, is made by reducing soil void ratio. The models are formulated to analyze the influence of auger structure parameters on power consumption and soil conveying volume. To obtain the optimized structure parameters of auger, the multi-objective optimization functions of the maximum soil conveying volume and minimum power consumption are developed. To verify the correctness of the models, the performances of different augers drilling simulation soil are tested. The test results demonstrate that the power consumption of optimized auger is the lowest both in theory and test, and the experimental results of soil conveying volume are in agreement with theoretical analysis. Consequently, a new method for designing a lunar sampling auger is proposed which includes the models of soil conveying volume and transportation power consumption, the optimization of structure parameters and the comparison tests. This method provides a reference for sampling auger designing of the Chinese Lunar Sample Mission.