Experimental technique for the measurement of temperature generated in deep lunar regolith drilling

Abstract

A novel temperature measuring system for deep lunar regolith drilling exploration is proposed herein. This system can be used to measure not only the temperature of a rotating and penetrating drill tool, but also the temperature of a lunar regolith simulant, to a maximum depth of 2 m inside a simulated lunar vacuum environment. This technique uses thermocouples and platinum resistors that are integrated into the drill tool and the lunar regolith simulant, respectively, and positioned as closely as possible to different measuring positions. To transmit and collect the temperature signals, a data condition system and a slip ring are specially incorporated to avoid wire wrapping and to transmit signals outside a vacuum environment. This system is shown to be successful in measuring the temperature generated in deep lunar regolith simulant drilling. The experimental results indicate the efficiency of this technique.