Lunar Sample Manipulation and Containment for Sample Return

Goals and Objectives The goal of the work is to mature a lunar sample manipulation and containment system to TRL 6, so it is ready for inclusion into a near term lunar sample return flight opportunity including Endurance, Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) landers, and Artemis rovers. The objectives to achieve the overall goal are: 1. Refine the Moonrise mission sampling scoop design to meet requirements for future lunar missions for acquiring specific sizes of pebbles and regolith and operate in the lunar environment 2. Develop a sample containment subsystem that meets future lunar mission requirements 3. Build the sampling and containment subsystems and validate it to TRL 6 in a relevant environment, including thermal vacuum (TVAC), vibration, and dust 4. Utilize the existing TRL 6 Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm (COLDArm), developed to a flight-ready state by the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Game Changing Development (GCD) Technology program and NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Award The requirements of the system derived from the Endurance mission concept include collecting samples from 12 sites over a 1200 km journey to deliver to Artemis astronauts for return to Earth. A robotic arm would collect and store samples from each site consisting of >20 rocklets between 0.5 cm to 2.0 cm in diameter and regolith fines. Methods and Techniques The effort will focus on the scoop and containers leveraging the sieving scoop and containment subsystems from the JPL MoonRise mission proposal for the New Frontiers 3 and 4. The MoonRise concept was a South Pole Aiken Basin Sample Return mission targeting similar rock sizes as desired for the Endurance requirements. The MoonRise sampling system was demonstrated in a lunar regolith simulant with rocks both in an ambient system testbed and vacuum subsystem testing to achieve TRL 4. Vibration used on the MoonRise scoop decreases ground interaction loads, assists in sieving material, enables photographic confirmation of proper sample, aids in depositing sample into containers, and assists in recovering from jamming. While the lander-based MoonRise collected samples from a single site, the proposed sampling system would be updated to support multiple sites. Testing will utilize a representative range of lunar regolith simulants and rock particle-size distributions, including corner cases to demonstrate robustness. The proposed effort will also leverage the STMD GCD COLDArm. COLDArm can operate at cryogenic temperatures without heaters, increasing feasibility for operation in the lunar night on power limited systems. Night operation can significantly increase system timeline margin compared to the current daytime only operations utilized on existing planetary manipulator missions. COLDArm is currently baselined in the Endurance Mission Report. The TRL 6 COLDArm engineering model manipulation system, testbeds, operations tools, and technologies will be utilized to focus on the scoop and containment subsystems. Year 1: Design/Testing for Scoop and Containment Subsystems in Lab Environment Year 2: Environmental Testing Year 3: End to End Demonstration with COLDArm and TRL 6 hardware design Significance The Planetary Science Decadal Survey recommends implementing Endurance-A to address the Science Themes for Lunar Exploration, including Theme 1 (Uncover the lunar record of the solar system origin and early history) and 2 (Understand the geologic processes that shaped the early Earth, and that are best preserved on the Moon). The concept addresses Artemis Science Objectives 1a (Formation of the Earth-Moon System), 1b (Differentiation: Magma Oceans, Crust, and Mantle), 1c (Volcanism: Partial Melting, Eruptions, Flow Sequence and Compositions), 1e (Impact Processes: Basins and Craters, Mixing of the Crust), and 3a (Test the Cataclysm) from the Artemis III Science Definition Team Report.

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