Away Team Gear: Testing A New Sample Collection System On The Moon
Editor’s note: One of the first things you learn in biology is sterile technique – the taking of a sample without contaminating it. You learn it in microbiology and later when taking water samples, air samples, swabs of surfaces, etc. The reason for avoiding contamination is simple – either you want to grow an organism without any interference or you want to study an organism or group of organisms as they exist in their native environment. Sometimes you are handling life forms that could be hazardous to researchers or the environment if released.
When it comes to studying life forms and samples from another world all of these factors come into play – and then some. As we expand our astrobiology exploration using robots and humans we’ll need to have the best possible sampling systems that operate with and without direct human interaction, in remote, possibly, hazardous environments.
Artemis offers Astrobiology hardware designers a chance to start working on these advanced collection systems. Even though the Moon is mostly likely sterile we do not want to have samples that we seek to stuff affected by the presence of Earth life. Then again there may be some interesting things in the water ice at the lunar south pole that originated from cometary bombardment – and comets are often filled with organic material. As such, careful collection is important for both biotic and abiotic sampling activities. This collection device is a new step in that direction.
Lunar PlanetVac — NASADate Created:2025-01-08 larger image
Among all the challenges of voyaging to and successfully landing on other worlds, the effective collection and study of soil and rock samples cannot be underestimated.
To quickly and thoroughly collect and analyze samples during next-generation Artemis Moon missions and future journeys to Mars and other planetary bodies, NASA seeks a paradigm shift in techniques that will more cost-effectively obtain samples, conduct in situ testing with or without astronaut oversight, and permit real-time sample data return to researchers on Earth.
That’s the planned task of an innovative technology demonstration called Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), one of 10 NASA payloads flying aboard the next lunar delivery for the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. LPV will be carried to the surface by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander.
Developed by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company of Altadena, California, LPV is a pneumatic, compressed gas-powered sample acquisition and delivery system – essentially, a vacuum cleaner that brings its own gas. It’s designed to efficiently collect and transfer lunar soil from the surface to other science instruments or sample return containers without reliance on gravity.
Secured to the Blue Ghost lunar lander, LPV’s sampling head will use pressurized gas to stir up the lunar regolith, or soil, creating a small tornado. If successful, material from the dust cloud it creates then will be funneled into a transfer tube via the payload’s secondary pneumatic jets and collected in a sample container.
The entire autonomous operation is expected to take just seconds and maintains planetary protection protocols. Collected regolith – including particles up to 1 cm in size, or roughly 0.4 inches – will be sieved and photographed inside the sample container with the findings transmitted back to Earth in real time.
The innovative approach to sample collection and in situ testing could prove to be a game-changer, said Dennis Harris, who manages the LPV payload for the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
“There’s no digging, no mechanical arm to wear out requiring servicing or replacement – it functions like a vacuum cleaner,” Harris said. “The technology on this CLPS payload could benefit the search for water, helium, and other resources and provide a clearer picture of in situ materials available to NASA and its partners for fabricating lunar habitats and launch pads, expanding scientific knowledge and the practical exploration of the solar system every step of the way.”
Under the CLPS model, NASA is investing in commercial delivery services to the Moon to enable industry growth and support long-term lunar exploration. As a primary customer for CLPS deliveries, NASA aims to be one of many customers on future flights. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the development of seven of the 10 CLPS payloads carried on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander.
Learn more about. CLPS and Artemis at: https://www.nasa.gov/clps
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