A Reusable Sample Feeding and Sealing Mechanism for Lunar Regolith In-situ Analysis

The Chang’e-7 mission will achieve a landing on the lunar South Pole to explore the surface characteristics, internal properties, and space environment of the lunar South Pole region. The Lunar Soil Volatile Analyzer is mounted on the rover. It uses the robotic arm’s digging tool to establish lunar soil profiles at different depths on the lunar surface. After quantitatively collecting lunar soil in-situ, the analyzer transfers the soil to an induction heating furnace for heating. The released volatiles are continuously measured at multiple temperature points to obtain the volatile compositions derived from lunar soil adsorption, solar wind implantation, cosmic ray causes, and radioactive causes. This provides a scientific basis for exploring the source of nitrogen on the lunar surface, regional geological chronology, and lunar soil maturity. This paper mainly introduces the processes of the lunar soil volatile preparation unit, as well as the main structural designs and working principles involved in the key preparation units. The processes mainly include sample receiving, sample transfer, sample preparation, and sample discarding. In the introduction of the process flow, the design of key components in each process and the results of characteristic test verification for these components will be emphasized, providing theoretical support for the preparation and measurement of volatiles.