Flawless operation of mobility systems, excavation, mining and in situ resource utilization (ISRU) operations, regolith transport, and many others critically depend on knowledge of the geotechnical properties of the soil. This paper presents Stinger, a geotechnical instrument design for robotic and astronaut deployment. Stinger combines an Apollo-based penetrometer approach for measuring bearing strength with a Lunokhod approach for measuring shear strength. The shear vane is initially housed inside the cone and is pushed out whenever shear tests are required. When the shear vane is out, the cone-vane is rotated to measure the shear strength of the soil. The test data from the Stinger breadboard shows a very good correlation with a stand-alone cone penetrometer and shear vane data.
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