Electrostatic Transport of Lunar Soil for In Situ Resource Utilization

To realize a long-term lunar exploration, it is essential to develop a technology for transporting lunar soil for in situ resource utilization. We are developing a particle transport system that utilizes electrostatic traveling waves. The conveyer consists of parallel electrodes printed on a plastic substrate. Four-phase rectangular voltage is applied to the electrodes to transport particles on the conveyer. Mechanical vibration was applied to the conveyer to transport particles more efficiently. The results of our investigation are as follows: (1) The observed transport rate in air was 13.5  g/min for a conveyer with a width of 100 mm. By performing numerical calculations on the basis of the 3D distinct element method, we predicted that the system performance would improve in the high-vacuum and low-gravity environment on the moon. (2) Power consumption in this system is much less. It was only 10 W for a conveyer with an area of 1.0  m2 . (3) We demonstrated an inclined and curved transport path as well ...

[1]  Stephen Lemos,et al.  A New Technique , 2004, The American journal of sports medicine.

[2]  F.W. Schmidlin,et al.  A new nonlevitated mode of traveling wave toner transport , 1988, Conference Record of the 1988 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting.

[3]  Hiroyuki Kawamoto,et al.  Mechanism of travelling-wave transport of particles , 2006 .

[4]  Hiroyuki Kawamoto,et al.  Traveling Wave Transport of Particles and Particle Size Classification , 2003 .

[5]  Hiroyuki Kawamoto,et al.  Fundamental investigation on electrostatic travelling-wave transport of a liquid drop , 2005 .

[6]  S. Trigwell,et al.  Dust Particle Removal by Electrostatic and Dielectrophoretic Forces with Applications to NASA Exploration Missions , 2008 .

[7]  Tetsuji Yoshida,et al.  Properties of Lunar Soil Simulant Manufactured in Japan , 1998 .

[8]  K. Ishida,et al.  Confinement and transportation of charged aerosol clouds via electric curtain , 1972 .

[9]  Hiroyuki Kawamoto,et al.  Some techniques on electrostatic separation of particle size utilizing electrostatic traveling-wave field , 2008 .

[10]  James R. Melcher,et al.  Theory for finite-phase traveling-wave boundary-guided transport of triboelectrified particles , 1989 .

[11]  Michael D. Thompson,et al.  Aspects of Toner Transport on a Traveling Wave Device , 1999 .

[12]  Hiroyuki Kawamoto,et al.  Mitigation of lunar dust on solar panels and optical elements utilizing electrostatic traveling-wave , 2011 .

[13]  T. Higuchi,et al.  Electrostatic devices for particle micro-handling , 1995, IAS '95. Conference Record of the 1995 IEEE Industry Applications Conference Thirtieth IAS Annual Meeting.

[14]  Carlos I. Calle,et al.  Particle removal by electrostatic and dielectrophoretic forces for dust control during lunar exploration missions , 2009 .

[15]  James R. Melcher,et al.  Traveling-wave delivery of single-component developer , 1989 .

[16]  S. Noble.  The Lunar Regolith , 2009 .

[17]  Fred W Schmidlin,et al.  Modes of traveling wave particle transport and their applications , 1995 .

[18]  Sadakazu Watanabe,et al.  A New Technique for Measuring the Distribution of Charge-to-Mass Ratio for Toner Particles with On-Line Use , 2003, Journal of Imaging Science and Technology.