Design and Experiments of a Regolith Environment Simulator for Lunar Polar Region Exploration
摘要
Studies have shown that water ice exists in the permanently shadowed regions of lunar polar regions. The Chinese Chang’E 7 probe is planned to be launched around 2026 to find evidence of water at lunar Antarctica. To improve the safety and success rate, it is necessary to build a lunar polar regolith-environment simulator on the ground in advance to verify the feasibility of the water ice drilling. This paper designs a lunar polar environment simulator consisting of four parts: a vacuum acquisition system, a vacuum chamber system, a cooling system, and a monitoring system. Through prototype development and experiments, it has been successfully verified that the simulator can build a regolith environment in lunar polar regions. The pressure of the vacuum chamber can reach 10−1 Pa with the diffusion pump system, the temperature of the refrigerated lunar regolith can reach – 185 °C with the liquid nitrogen circulation, and the lunar regolith environment can be adjusted and monitored.