Design and Experimental Validation of Sealing Assembly for Lunar Regolith Volatile Extraction Heating Furnace.

A lunar regolith in-situ analysis payload deploying a mass spectrometer is proposed to exactly detect the water ice of the South Pole of the moon for China future lunar exploration missions. In order to realize the goal, an airtight heating furnace for volatile extraction from lunar regolith is desired. In this paper, sealing methods for lunar regolith volatile in heating furnace to future proposed in-situ sampling and analysis of lunar samples were investigated based on power requirements, furnace closing accuracy requirements, dust tolerance and operation in the Lunar environment. Methods implemented include a balanced metal hollow ring seal, a double channel ferrule tab ring radial seal and a spring energized seal. Comparing the performance of sealing methods under the above conditions, a spring energized seal is selected as the heating furnace seal. The materials and structure of the seal are designed based on the rigidity requirements, leakage rate requirements and working environment requirements. In order to test the sealing performance of seals after repeated sealing in high and low temperature environments, a seal leak detection system was designed. The test results indicate that the seal can meet the sealing performance requirements after repeated sealing at various temperatures.