A Novel Approach to Planetary Regolith Collection: The Bucket Drum Soil Excavator

The Bucket Drum Excavator (BDE) was designed as a robust yet lightweight device that can effectively collect, contain, and deliver planetary soils. When mounted to a mobility platform, the BDE can collect soil at an excavation site and then deliver the soil to processing equipment. Additional capabilities include road building, ramp and berm construction, trenching, area leveling, or any number of dig and fill operations. Multiple small scoops on the exterior of the drum collect soil as the drum rotates. The collected soil is contained within the drum through the use of internal baffles. Reversing the direction of drum rotation expels the soil back out through the scoops.