Development and Testing of Proboscis Heat Flow Probe with Gas-Enhanced Drilling System

Details Development and Testing of Proboscis Heat Flow Probe with Gas-Enhanced Drilling System Development and Testing of Proboscis Heat Flow Probe with Gas-Enhanced Drilling System

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p43b1680s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P43B-1680

Physics

[5418] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Heat Flow, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon, [6297] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

Our heat-flow probe (HFP) directly addresses the goal of the Lunar Geophysical Network, which is to understand the interior structure and composition of the Moon. A key challenge for a heat flow measurement is to install the thermal sensors deep enough (depth > ~3 m) so that they are not influenced by the diurnal, annual, or long-term thermal fluctuations. In addition, once deployed, the heat flow probe should cause little disturbance to the thermal regime of the surrounding regolith. We developed a heat-flow probe system which has two novel features: 1) it utilizes a pneumatic (gas) approach to excavate a hole by lofting the lunar soil out of this opening; and 2) deploys the heat flow probe, which utilizes a coiled up tape as a thermal probe, to reach our target depth. The system is unique for small lunar landers as it exhibits extremely low mass, volume, and simple deployment. Thus far we have successfully demonstrated this approach to the maximum possible depth with our present hardware (~50 cm): 1.) under atmospheric condition in compacted lunar soil simulant; 2.) in Mauna Kea volcanic tephra; and 3.) in a vacuum chamber, in compacted lunar soil simulant. Our next step is to fabricate a mass optimized HFP for a 3 m depth.

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