RASSOR bucket drum with shutter mechanism

grabcad

This RASSOR concept employs an eccentric shaft that powers the shutter plates at each scoop. By holding the eccentric shaft in a downward position and rotating the drum, the device can scoop up regolith and hold it in the scoop until the drum has turned far enough to release the regolith and allow it to fall inside. At the same time, regolith is prevented from falling outside by the shutter plates. As the eccentric shaft is slowly rotated from a downward to an upward position, which results in opening the shutter plates at the underside and rotating the drum in the opposite direction, the collected regolith is able to escape through the now open shutters. To calculate the weight of the assembly, it was assumed that the bucket drum collector would be made mostly out of aluminum. This resulted in a total mass of 4,711kg, which does not include cover plates made of composite polymer material. Due to unknown stress, the aluminum sheets are slightly thicker to reduce stress, leading to an overall increase in weight. The bucket drum has a maximum filling ratio of 35,14Liters, but is only operational up to 27,83Liters at this volume the drum is approximately 79.16% filled. A filling ratio of 100% is not possible because the shutter plates require a certain degree of movement freedom.