The Institute of Metals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences made drill pipes for the lunar probe Chang 'e-5

On December 2, the goddess of the moon and five lander ascenders combination drill down on the moon, sampling and packaging work, including the moon drilling sampling mechanism of key parts, drill pipe and its structure was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences institute of metal Ma Zongyi team sic particle reinforced aluminium matrix composite materials, its light weight, high rigidity, high strength and wear resistance, etc, to satisfy the chang 'e no. 5 in sampling requirements of harsh working conditions on the surface of the moon.

China's lunar exploration project is divided into three steps: "round", "fall" and "return".The Chang 'e-5 probe is China's first lunar sampling-back probe responsible for the chang 'e-3 mission.The main mission is to collect lunar samples and return to the Earth, so as to fully realize the "three-step" strategic goal of the lunar exploration project.

The 2.5m long and deep hole sampler mounted in the sampling mechanism is responsible for drilling into the lunar soil for sampling and sending it to the riser.The complex composition of lunar soil, the drastic environmental temperature change and the harsh lightweight requirements put forward strict requirements on the weight, strength and wear resistance of the structural parts of drilling and production mechanism. Among them, the drill pipe should drill into the deep of lunar soil, which requires more stringent requirements on materials, and the conventional metal materials cannot meet the preparation requirements.

Aluminum matrix composite has excellent properties such as low density, high strength, high modulus and wear resistance, etc. It is an ideal material to replace steel, titanium, aluminum and other traditional metals in preparing drill pipe.However, the traditional aluminum matrix composite has poor toughness matching, and its stability and reliability are difficult to meet the demanding working environment of drilling and production mechanism and the quality requirements of "safe and sound".Ma Zongyi's team developed high-strength and tough aluminum matrix composite extruded bars, forgings and thick-walled tubes through the development of large-size billet ingots and multi-step deformation processing technology, so as to greatly improve the material performance and stability.

Especially for the material of drill pipe material in high orientation microstructure design, at the same time of guarantee abrasion resistance, high strength plastic material matching, successively broke the inner hole of composites and high precision, high linearity processing, heat treatment reinforcement and straightening, the key techniques such as the development of drill pipe can be comparable to steel, wear resistance and strength to achieve weight loss 65%, solved the soil pipe "no material available, there are difficult to processing".It provides important support for the successful completion of chang 'e-5 drilling task.