NASA Regolith bucket drum design contest

grabcad

Original Design: OD - 449mm Width: 350mm Scoops Engaged Width at One Time: 140 mm Weight (Estimated): Approximately 4.9 kg Regolith Retained Estimate: Around 35% Fill Volume Estimation: Roughly 60% This design leverages two buckets mounted on a single rotating arm centered around a main axis, enabling the capture of more material by the RASSOR. The arms can also function as legs that extend upwards to help the RASSOR overcome obstacles with greater ease than before. This innovative design employs five smaller buckets connected in series on a shaft to create a large bucket. Each bucket is positioned 60 degrees apart from one another, allowing for minimum scoop width engagement. Once one bucket reaches maximum capacity, it rotates to utilize the adjacent bucket for additional regolith collection. When the buckets are fully loaded, the soil can be transported and the buckets reversed to unload the material in the desired location.