Regolith Collector Payload for a Lunar Rover

In order to make the future stay of astronauts on the lunar surface more sustainable, it will be necessary to produce the resources needed to supply them locally, thus not having to supply them from Earth. To this end, various agencies globally are coordinating to develop technologies for harvesting and processing lunar resources. In particular, regolith can be the raw material from which to obtain oxygen, water and carbon dioxide. The first necessity in the ISRU process chain (besides of course the study and search for the raw material, which in the case of regolith is found virtually everywhere on the Moon) is the harvesting of the regolith itself. This implies large-scale extraction scenarios, with automated vehicles closing a cycle of extraction, transport, and recharging in a repetitive manner. As an example, NASA has designed the RASSOR vehicle , which specializes in collecting material by means of two large rotating drums: this is a robot that can sink to a depth of up to 1 meter by digging a real trench, in order to reach the most water-rich regolith. This thesis explores regolith collectors, fundamental tools for collecting and analyzing surface materials on celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars. The technological design, engineering challenges, and scientific and practical applications of these tools are analyzed. The goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of current regolith collection technologies and to suggest future directions for improvement and innovation.