A Future Moon Mission: Curatorial Statistics on Regolith Fragments Applicable to Sample Collection by RakingThe strategy of raking rock fragments from the lunar regolith as a means of acquiring representative samples has wide support due to science return, spacecraft simplicity (reliability) and economy [3, 4, 5]. While there exists widespread agreement that raking or sieving the bulk regolith is good strategy, there is lively discussion about the minimum sample size. Advocates of consor-tium studies desire fragments large enough to support petrologic and isotopic studies. Fragments from 5 to 10 mm are thought adequate [4, 5]. Yet, Jolliff et al. [6] demonstrated use of 2-4 mm fragments as repre-sentative of larger rocks. Here we make use of cura-torial records and sample catalogs to give a different perspective on minimum sample size for a robotic sample collector.
Document ID
20030110888
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Allton, J. H. (Lockheed Martin Corp. Houston, TX, United States)
Bevill, T. J. (Lockheed Martin Corp. Houston, TX, United States)