Gas-driven asteroid regolith sampling device based on disk-shaped cutter

The gas-driven and disk cutting sampling method are of considerable significance to avoid the limitation of sampling in the low-gravity environment of the asteroid and directly collect dust and gravel samples on the surface of the asteroid. A new mechanical structure of the gas-driven and disk cutting sampling device is proposed in this paper, which mainly consists of two parts: the air-blowing device and the disk-shaped cutter. In this design, the disk-shaped cutter is used to cut rocks on the asteroid surface and the air-blowing device is used to blow and take the rubble samples on the asteroid surface. Based on the CFD-DEM co-simulation method, the structural parameters of the air blowing device were compared and optimized by the velocity of the airflow, which is considered as the measurement index. According to the simulation results, the structure of the nozzle of the air-blowing device is designed, and a series of air blowing experiments were carried out to verify the accuracy of CFD-DEM co-simulation results. Subsequently, further experiments proved the device's sampling ability on uneven ground. It is found in this paper that this device can sample volcanic rock particles in the range of 5–15 ​mm and 15–25 ​mm. Therefore, it is feasible to collect samples on the asteroid surface by the gas-driven and disk cutting sampling method.