Micro quantitative sampling using electric adsorption for lunar in-situ volatiles exploration: Method and validation

In order to meet the task requirements of low power consumption and high-reliability milligram scale in-situ shallow lunar regolith collection in lunar exploration activities, a micro-quantitative lunar regolith samples collection method for in-situ volatile matter quantitative analysis on the lunar surface was proposed to improve the quantitative accuracy of volatile mass spectrometry analysis of lunar regolith. Firstly, the electrostatic forces of the electric adsorption (EA) models of three different electrode configurations were calculated and simulated. Then, two kinds of coupling operating tools of sampling and quantitative sampling are designed based on the principle of EA. Finally, the spiral drill tool is used to realize profile tunneling, and the adsorption sampling of lunar regolith samples at the designated location is completed by coupling the electrostatic field. The experimental verification shows that the method can achieve the quantitative collection of 100 ±10 mg samples, and the sampling procedure parameters are preliminarily determined. It provides a new sampling technique for micro quantitative sampling of extraterrestrial objects.