Electrostatic-driven method for lunar regolith sampling

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is being proposed as the strategy to establish long-term presence on the Moon and to facilitate future crewed missions farther, e.g., Mars, thanks to the creation of products by using local resources [1]. Due to its composition and physical characteristics, lunar regolith represents a key resource for human life support, propellant production, and the construction of infrastructures [2-4]. The development of efficient regolith sampling technologies hence represents a crucial first step to increase our understanding of lunar resources. Within the previous exploration missions on the Moon and recent technology developments, several approached have been proposed for the collection of regolith [5]. There has been great attention in optimizing technology performance, however developing systems capable of acquiring regolith samples that are representative of the sampled region is still a necessity [5].

The present work proposes the design, development and testing of a system employing electrostatic and vibration forces to execute a precise and representative sampling of surface lunar regolith. The sampling system was tested at controlled relative humidity conditions at the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) in Luxembourg. Samples of LHS-1 lunar regolith simulant with changing compaction levels were created using air pluviation technique as previously done in [6]. Our findings showed greater regolith collection for LHS-1 samples with lower initial porosity. Sampling performance was also evaluated with changing environment relative humidity (RH) conditions showing greater regolith collection with decreasing RH for values below 18 %, after which it was constant. In addition, how sampling performance is affected by the process duration was investigated resulting in greater mass collected during longer operations for processes up to 360 s, after which saturation was observed. Finally, for the first time, the Particle Size Distributions of collected and original regolith samples were measured and the mean values of particle size diameters did not show important relative differences, demonstrating the representativity of the proposed sampling system.

 

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[2] I. A. Crawford, “Lunar resources: A review,” Prog. Phys. Geogr. Earth Environ., vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 137–167, Apr. 2015, doi: 10.1177/0309133314567585.

[3] M. B. Duke, “Development of the Moon,” Rev. Mineral. Geochem., vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 597–655, Jan. 2006, doi: 10.2138/rmg.2006.60.6.

[4] M. Anand et al., “A brief review of chemical and mineralogical resources on the Moon and likely initial in situ resource utilization (ISRU) applications,” Planet. Space Sci., vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 42–48, Dec. 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2012.08.012.

[5] S.R.M. Pirrone et al., “Lunar Regolith Sampling Technologies: A Critical Review“, Space Sci Rev 221, 111, Nov. 2025, doi: 10.1007/s11214-025-01239-6.

[6] S.R.M. Pirrone et al., “The Effect of Tip Design on Technological Performance During the Exploration of Earth, Lunar, and Martian Soil Environments,” J. Field Robot., p. rob.70043, Aug. 2025, doi: 10.1002/rob.70043.