Print ‘Workbench Community Tutorial: Engineers Blog = Ranjan Gnanaoli = 905 Settings = Invite = Logout NASA Lunar Sampling System Design ChallengeNASA is seeking to challenge the GrabCAD Community by sponsoring an open competition in which participants design a sampling system to collect lunar surface materials for return to Earth and subsequent scientific analysis. The competition will be to design a sampling system that is capable of acquiring a defined amount of regolith (rocks and dust) within specific size ranges while operating under the provided constraints. The winning designs will be built and tested by NASA and used to inform potential future sample return missions on possible sampling methods. Sample retum missions are constrained by mass, power, and operating time. There is a need for a lightweight, low power sampling system that is capable of sorting the collected regolith so only specific types of materials are returned. Rocks in the ~1 cm size range are well suited for scientific analy: Prioritizing the collection of these materials within the design constraints is the main goal of the competition. Requirements + JUDGING CRITERIA 1) Total mass of sampling system (lighter is better), 2) Total power consumption (less is better). 3) Layered packing of samples into container is better. Example: "First deposit into container: Fines/loose regolith Second deposit: ~1 m rocks Third deposit: Fines/loose regolith Fourth deposit: ~1 em rocks Repeat until mass and volume requirements are met." + TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS 1) Sampling system shall be capable of acquiring 100 cm3 (density of lunar basalt = 3.27-3.5. _.03 so baseline of 150g to 300g of sample) of regolith.2) Collected sample shall consist of a minimum of 10, maximum of 20, | em to 2 em diameter rocks. This may require filtering or sorting the sample prior to depositing in sample container. 3) Sampling system shall fill the remaining sample volume (10-80 cm3 after gathering rocks) with materials smaller than 1 em. 4) Samples shall be collected in the upper 10 em of lunar regolith, 5) Samples shall come in contact only with aluminum and/or Teflon within the sample system. 6) Sampling system mass must be no greater than 0.5 kg. 7) Samples shall be deposited by the sampling system into a cylinder container that is 4.8 em wide (diameter) and 5.73 cm tall. 8) Sampling system shall be capable of operating in a lunar day thermal environment (range of -140C to +80C). 9) Sampling system shall be capable of operating in a hard vacuum (10-6 torr), 10) Maximum power available for the sampling system is 30 watts. 11) Sampling system shall be capable of providing visual confirmation of collected contents prior to depositing into sample container, Assume the presence of a video camera on the lander which can be used for visual confirmation (must be able to see the sample). 12) Full sampling operations shall be completed within <= 1 Earth day (24 hours). 13) Sampling system physical (mounting) and electrical (wiring) interfaces must be accounted for in the design 14) Submissions must identify any lander components that are necessary for using the sampling system. These do not need to be designed. + SUBMISSION FILE FORMATS STEP of design space(s) Rendering(s) Final design STL Rules « ENTERING THE COMPETITION The Challenge is open to everyone except employees and families of GrabCAD and the Sponsor. Multiple entries are weleome. ‘Team entries are welcome. By entering the Challenge you: 1. Accept the official GrabCAD Challenges Terms & Conditions. 2. Agree to be bound by the decisions of the judges (Jury) 3. Warrant that you are eligible to participate, 4, Warrant that the submission is your original work. 5. Warrant, to the best of your knowledge, your work is not, and has not been in production or otherwise previously published or exhibited. 6. Warrant neither the work nor its use infringes the intellectual property rights (whether a patent, utility model, functional design right, aesthetic design right, trademark, copyright or any othe~ intellectual property right) of any other person. 7. Warrant participation shall not constitute employment, assignment or offer of employmen assignment.