Thermal vacuum regolith environment simulator for China's deep lunar drilling exploration

A thermal vacuum regolith environment simulator for China's deep lunar drilling exploration was proposed and developed. The simulator can be used to provide not only a vacuum but also a high or low temperature environment for the lunar regolith simulant to a maximum depth of 2 m. It consisted of a vacuum system for simulating an airless condition, a regolith preparation system for compacting the regolith simulant with different bulking densities, and a thermal system for simulating the lunar regolith temperature distribution. Multi-layer stainless steel filters were used to filter regolith particles during the evacuation process. This method accelerated the dissipation of inner gas molecules and maintained the regolith simulant bulk density. The thermal system used iodine-tungsten lamps to heat the surface regolith and silicon oil to refrigerate the subsurface regolith. A rotating and locking mechanism inside the simulation chamber was proposed for multiple drillings within a single environment simulation.