Centrifugal Sieve for the Size Separation of Lunar Regolith in Microgravity

For any microgravity environment traditional sieving methods used on earth can fail or be less effective for smaller size particles.  Previously a device was designed and built that uses centrifugal force created by a spinning screen to push material through and a spinning helical auger to create shear flow to sieve independent of gravity.  Our goal is primarily to determine the most efficient parameters for the operation of the centrifugal sieve using a variety of materials (lunar simulants JSC-1a and LHT, and a rounded sand) and to implement complete control of the sieve in LabVIEW.  In the future the sieve may be tested or used on a space flight so complete computer control is necessary and the most efficient sieve conditions to minimize power consumption will be useful.  In order to monitor the power consumption two ammeters will be used to measure the current that each motor is consuming and the spike in current when there is a load on the motor from the material being sieved.  To confirm that the centrifugal sieve is effective enough analysis of the material collected after will be sieved using an analytical sieve shaker for data on size distribution. By determining the operating conditions that sieve most effectively and consume the least amount of power we effectively help optimize the centrifugal sieve.

Work supported by NASA SBIR Phase-1 NNX11CE32P