A miniature flexible sampler for subsurface lunar exploration

• The object of study is a lunar sampler whose sampling arm is flexible tape spring.
• The working principle and driving mechanism of the flexible arm is explained.
• The kinematics model is modified due to the flexibility of the sampling arm.
• The sampling process is illustrated and the experimental data are given.
• The performance limits of the proposed sampler are established in the experiments.

Lunar subsurface sampling is one of the critical technologies in the advancement of space exploration, and a lunar sampler with low weight, small volume, and low power consumption would significantly reduce the cost of space exploration. Thus, this paper proposes a novel miniature lunar sampler which adopts a flexible tape spring as its sampling arm. Compared with existing rigid-arm samplers, the proposed sampler has the merits of very low weight, reduced volume, and little power consumption. The mechanical design is illustrated in detail, the corresponding flexible kinematics model is built by considering flexibility compensation, and the working space of the sampler is depicted. The performance, e.g. the maximum acceleration, the maximum load capacity, and the sampling depth of the flexible arm, is analyzed through experiments, and each limit is established. In addition, the sampling process is demonstrated with the lab-based experiments, and the feasibility of the sampler is verified.