Pressure Changes During Lunar Regolith Simulant Movement in Dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber

A dusty thermal vacuum chamber (DTVAC) equipped with a regolith simulant bin is a key infrastructure to validate space equipment planned to operate in the future lunar missions. The proper setup of such infrastructure is challenging since the regolith simulant needs to be outgassed; otherwise, it might affect the validation process. This paper presents the results of experiments conducted in a dusty thermal vacuum chamber. The experiment was designed to verify if lunar regolith simulants prepared and placed in the bin may preserve atmospheric gases after the chamber depressurization process. Such hypotheses were defined after testing a drill in vacuum conditions, the performance of which was higher than expected. The obtained results show that the preparation and placement of regolith in the bin should be performed under vacuum conditions regardless of the external temperature.