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NASA NTRS2005

Sulfate Deposition in Regolith Exposed in Trenches on the Plains Between the Spirit Landing Site and Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater, Mars

During its exploration within Gusev crater between sol 01 and sol 158, the Spirit rover dug three trenches (Fig. 1) to expose the subsurface regolith [1, 2, 9]. Laguna trench (approx. 6 cm deep, approx.203 m from the rim of Bonneville crater) was dug in Laguna Hollow at the boundary of the impact ejecta from Bonneville crater and the surrounding plains. The Big Hole trench (approx. 6-7 cm deep) and The Boroughs trench (approx. 11 cm deep) were dug in the plains between the Bonneville crater and the Columbia Hills (approx.556 m and approx.1698 m from the rim of Bonneville crater respectively). The top, wall and floor regolith of the three trenches were investigated using the entire set of Athena scientific instruments [10].

Wang, Alian↗
NASA NTRS2006

Characterization of Standardized Lunar Regolith Simulant Materials

Lunar exploration requires scientific and engineering studies using standardized testing procedures that ultimately support flight certification of technologies and hardware. This motivates the development of traceable, standardized lunar regolith simulant (SLRS) materials. For details, refer to the 2005 Workshop on Lunar Regolith Simulant Materials.

Carpenter, P.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Carbon-rich Chondritic Clast PV1 from the Plainview H-chondrite Regolith Formation from H3 Chondrite Material by Possible Cometary Impact

Chondritic clast PV1 from the Plainview H-chondrite regolith breccia is a subrounded, 5-mm diameter unequilibrated chondritic fragment that contains 13 wt% C occurring mainly within irregularly shaped 30-400-micron-size opaque patches. The clast formed from H3 chondrite material as indicated by the mean apparent chondrule diameter (310 micron vs. approximately 300 micron in H3 chondrites), the mean Mg-normalized refractory lithophile abundance ratio (1.00 +/- 0.09 XH), the previously determined 0-isotopic composition (Delta O-17 = 0.66% vs. 0.68 +/- 0.04%0 in H3 chondrites and 0.73 +/- 0.09% in H4-6 chondrites), the heterogeneous olivine compositions in grain cores (with a minimum range of Fal-19), and the presence of glass in some chondrules. Although the clast lacks the fine-grained, ferroan silicate matrix material present in type 3 ordinary chondrites, PV1 contains objects that appear to be recrystallized clumps of matrix material. Similarly, the apparent dearth of radial pyroxene and cryptocrystalline chondrules in PV1 is accounted for by the presence of some recrystallized fragments of these chondrule textural types. All of the chondrules in PV1 are interfused indicating that temperatures must have briefly reached approximately 1100C (the approximate solidus temperature of H-chondrite silicate). The most likely source of this heating was by an impact. Some metal was lost during impact heating as indicated by the moderately low abundance of metallic Fe-Ni in PV1 (approximately 14 wt%) compared to that in mean H chondrites (approximately 18 wt%). The carbon enrichment of the clast may have resulted from a second impact event, one involving a cometary projectile, possibly a Jupiter-family comet. As the clast cooled, it experienced hydrothermal alteration at low water/rock ratios as evidenced by the thick rims of ferroan olivine around low-FeO olivine cores. The C-rich chondritic clast was later incorporated into the H-chondrite parent-body regolith and extensively fractured and faulted.

Rubin, Alan E.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Development Issues for Lunar Regolith Simulants

Significant challenges and logistical issues exist for the development of standardized lunar regolith simulant (SLRS) materials for use in the development and testing of flight hardware for upcoming NASA lunar missions. A production program at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for the deployment of lunar mare basalt simulant JSC-lA is underway. Root simulants have been proposed for the development of a low-T mare basalt simulant and a high-Ca highland anorthosite simulant, as part of a framework of simulant development outlined in the 2005 Lunar Regolith Simulant Materials Workshop held at MSFC. Many of the recommendation for production and standardization of simulants have already been documented by the MSFC team. But there are a number of unanswered questions related to geology which need ta be addressed prior to the creation of the simulants.

Rickman, Doug↗
NASA NTRS2007

The Need for High Fidelity Lunar Regolith Simulants

The case is made for the need to have high fidelity lunar regolith simulants to verify the performance of structures and mechanisms to be used on the lunar surface. Minor constituents will in some cases have major consequences. Small amounts of sulfur in the regolith can poison catalysts, and metallic iron on the surface of nano-sized dust particles may cause a dramatic increase in its toxicity. So the definition of a high fidelity simulant is application dependent. For example, in situ resource utilization will require high fidelity in chemistry, meaning careful attention to the minor components and phases; but some other applications, such as the abrasive effects on suit fabrics, might be relatively insensitive to minor component chemistry. The lunar environment itself will change the surface chemistry of the simulant, so to have a high fidelity simulant at must be used in a high fidelity simulated environment to get a high fidelity simulation. Research must be conducted to determine how sensitive technologies will be to minor components and environmental factors before they can be dismissed as unimportant.

Gaier, James R.↗
NASA NTRS2008

A Versatile Lifting Device for Lunar Surface Payload Handling, Inspection and Regolith Transport Operations

Devices for lifting and transporting payloads and material are critical for efficient Earth-based construction operations. Devices with similar functionality will be needed to support lunar-outpost construction, servicing, inspection, regolith excavation, grading and payload placement. Past studies have proposed that only a few carefully selected devices are required for a lunar outpost. One particular set of operations involves lifting and manipulating payloads in the 100 kg to 3,000 kg range, which are too large or massive to be handled by unassisted astronauts. This paper will review historical devices used for payload handling in space and on earth to derive a set of desirable features for a device that can be used on planetary surfaces. Next, an innovative concept for a lifting device is introduced, which includes many of the desirable features. The versatility of the device is discussed, including its application to lander unloading, servicing, inspection, regolith excavation and site preparation. Approximate rules, which can be used to size the device for specific payload mass and reach requirements, are provided. Finally, details of a test-bed implementation of the innovative concept, which will be used to validate the structural design and develop operational procedures, is provided.

Doggett, William R.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Excavation on the Moon: Regolith Collection for Oxygen Production and Outpost Site Preparation

The development of a robust regolith moving system for lunar and planetary processing and construction is critical to the NASA mission to the Moon and Mars. Oxygen production may require up to 200 metric tons of regolith collection per year; outpost site development may require several times this amount. This paper describes progress in the small vehicle implement development and small excavation system development. Cratos was developed as a platform for the ISRU project to evaluate the performance characteristics of a low center of gravity, small (0.75m x 0.75m x 0.3m), low-power, tracked vehicle performing excavation, load, haul, and dump operations required for lunar ISRU. It was tested on loose sand in a facility capable of producing level and inclined surfaces, and demonstrated the capability to pick up, carry, and dump sand, allowing it to accomplish the delivery of material to a site. Cratos has demonstrated the capability to pick up and deliver simulant to a bury an inflatable habitat, to supply an oxygen production plant, and to build a ramp.

Caruso, John J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

From Lunar Regolith to Fabricated Parts: Technology Developments and the Utilization of Moon Dirt

The U.S. Space Exploration Policy has as a cornerstone the establishment of an outpost on the moon. This lunar outpost wil1 eventually provide the necessary planning, technology development, testbed, and training for manned missions in the future beyond the Moon. As part of the overall activity, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is investigating how the in situ resources can be utilized to improve mission success by reducing up-mass, improving safety, reducing risk, and bringing down costs for the overall mission. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), along with other NASA centers, is supporting this endeavor by exploring how lunar regolith can be mined for uses such as construction, life support, propulsion, power, and fabrication. An infrastructure capable of fabrication and nondestructive evaluation will be needed to support habitat structure development and maintenance, tools and mechanical parts fabrication, as well as repair and replacement of space-mission hardware such as life-support items, vehicle components, and crew systems, This infrastructure will utilize the technologies being developed under the In Situ Fabrication and Repair (ISFR) element, which is working in conjunction with the technologies being developed under the In Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU) element, to live off the land. The ISFR Element supports the Space Exploration Initiative by reducing downtime due to failed components; decreasing risk to crew by recovering quickly from degraded operation of equipment; improving system functionality with advanced geometry capabilities; and enhancing mission safety by reducing assembly part counts of original designs where possible. This paper addresses the need and plan for understanding the properties of the lunar regolith to determine the applicability of using this material in a fabrication process. This effort includes the development of high fidelity simulants that will be used in fabrication processes on the ground to drive down risk and increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) prior to implementing this capability on the moon. Also discussed in this paper is the on-going research using Electron Beam Melting (EBM) technology as a possible solution to manufacturing parts and spares on the Moon's surface.

McLemore, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

BRDF of Salt Pan Regolith Samples

Laboratory Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) measurements of salt pan regolith samples are presented in this study in an effort to understand the role of spatial and spectral variability of the natural biome. The samples were obtained from Etosha Pan, Namibia (19.20 deg S, 15.93 deg E, alt. 1100 m). It is shown how the BRDF depends on the measurement geometry - incident and scatter angles and on the sample particle sizes. As a demonstration of the application of the results, airborne BRDF measurements acquires with NASA's Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR) over the same general site where the regolith samples were collected are compared with the laboratory results. Good agreement between laboratory measured and field measured BRDF is reported.

Georgiev, Georgi T.↗
NASA NTRS2008

The Need for High Fidelity Lunar Regolith Simulants

The case is made for the need to have high fidelity lunar regolith simulants to verify the performance of structures, mechanisms, and processes to be used on the lunar surface. Minor constituents will in some cases have major consequences. Small amounts of sulfur in the regolith can poison catalysts, and metallic iron on the surface of nano-sized dust particles may cause a dramatic increase in its toxicity. So the definition of a high fidelity simulant is application-dependent. For example, in situ resource utilization will require high fidelity in chemistry, meaning careful attention to the minor components and phases; but some other applications, such as the abrasive effects on suit fabrics, might be relatively insensitive to minor component chemistry while abrasion of some metal components may be highly dependent on trace components. The lunar environment itself will change the surface chemistry of the simulant, so to have a high fidelity simulant it must be used in a high fidelity simulated environment to get an accurate simulation. Research must be conducted to determine how sensitive technologies will be to minor components and environmental factors before they can be dismissed as unimportant.

Gaier, James R.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Potential of Probing the Lunar Regolith using Rover-Mounted Ground Penetrating Radar: Moses Lake Dune Field Analog Study

Probing radars have been widely recognized by the science community to be an efficient tool to explore lunar subsurface providing a unique capability to address several scientific and operational issues. A wideband (200 to 1200 MHz) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) mounted on a surface rover can provide high vertical resolution and probing depth from few tens of centimeters to few tens of meters depending on the sounding frequency and the ground conductivity. This in term can provide a better understand regolith thickness, elemental iron concentration (including ilmenite), volatile presence, structural anomalies and fracturing. All those objectives are of important significance for understanding the local geology and potential sustainable resources for future landing sites in particular exploring the thickness, structural heterogeneity and potential volatiles presence in the lunar regolith. While the operation and data collection of GPR is a straightforward case for most terrestrial surveys, it is a challenging task for remote planetary study especially on robotic platforms due to the complexity of remote operation in rough terrains and the data collection constrains imposed by the mechanical motion of the rover and limitation in data transfer. Nevertheless, Rover mounted GPR can be of great support to perform systematic subsurface surveys for a given landing site as it can provide scientific and operational support in exploring subsurface resources and sample collections which can increase the efficiency of the EVA activities for potential human crews as part of the NASA Constellation Program. In this study we attempt to explore the operational challenges and their impact on the EVA scientific return for operating a rover mounted GPR in support of potential human activity on the moon. In this first field study, we mainly focused on the ability of GPR to support subsurface sample collection and explore shallow subsurface volatiles.

Horz, F.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Production of Oxygen from Lunar Regolith using Molten Oxide Electrolysis

This slide presentation reviews the possible use of molten oxide electrolysis to extract oxygen from the Lunar Regolith. The presentation asserts that molten regolith electrolysis has advanced to be a useful method for production of oxygen and metals in situ on the Moon. The work has demonstrated an 8 hour batch of electrolysis at 5 amps using Iridium inert anodes.

Sibille, Laurent↗
NASA NTRS2009

Determination of Chemical Kinetic Rate Constants of a Model for Carbothermal Processing of Lunar Regolith Simulant Using Methane

We have previously developed a chemical conversion model of the carbothermal processing of lunar regolith using methane to predict the rate of production of carbon monoxide. In this carbothermal process, gaseous methane is pyrolyzed as it flows over the hot surface of a molten zone of lunar regolith and is converted to carbon and hydrogen. Hydrogen is carried away by the exiting stream of gases and carbon is deposited on the melt surface. The deposited carbon mixes with the melt and reacts with the metal oxides in it to produce carbon monoxide that bubbles out of the melt. In our model, we assume that the flux of carbon deposited is equal to the product of the surface reaction rate constant gamma and the concentration of methane adjacent to the melt surface. Similarly, the rate of consumption of carbon per unit volume in the melt is equal to the product of the melt reaction rate constant k and the concentrations of carbon and metal oxide in the melt. In this paper, we describe our effort to determine gamma and k by comparison of the predictions from our model with test data obtained by ORBITEC (Orbital Technologies Corporation). The concentration of methane adjacent to the melt surface is a necessary input to the model. It is inferred from the test data by a mass balance of methane, adopting the usual assumptions of the continuously-stirred-tank-reactor model, whereby the average concentration of a given gaseous species equals its exit concentration. The reaction rates gamma and k have been determined by a non-linear least-squares fit to the test data for the production of carbon monoxide and the fraction of the incoming methane that is converted. The comparison of test data with our model predictions using the determined chemical kinetic rate constants provides a consistent interpretation of the process over the full range of temperatures, pressures, and methane flow rates used in the tests, thereby increasing our confidence to use the model for scale-up purposes.

Balasubramaniam, R↗
NASA NTRS2010

Performance of Regolith Feed Systems for Analog Field Tests of In-Situ Resource Utilization Oxygen Production Plants in Mauna Kea, Hawaii

This paper focuses on practical aspects of mechanical auger and pneumatic regolith conveying system feeding In-Situ Resource Utilization Oxygen production plants. The subsystems of these feedstock delivery systems include an enclosed auger device, pneumatic venturi educator, jet-lift regolith transfer, innovative electro-cyclone gas-particle separation/filtration systems, and compressors capable of dealing with hot hydrogen and/or methane gas re-circulating in the system. Lessons learned from terrestrial laboratory, reduced gravity and field testing on Mauna Kea Volcano in Hawaii during NASA lunar analog field tests will be discussed and practical design tips will be presented.

Townsend, Ivan I.↗
NASA NTRS2010

An Exponential Luminous Efficiency Model for Hypervelocity Impact into Regolith

The flash of thermal radiation produced as part of the impact-crater forming process can be used to determine the energy of the impact if the luminous efficiency is known. From this energy the mass and, ultimately, the mass flux of similar impactors can be deduced. The luminous efficiency, Eta is a unique function of velocity with an extremely large variation in the laboratory range of under 8 km/s but a necessarily small variation with velocity in the meteoric range of 20 to 70 km/s. Impacts into granular or powdery regolith, such as that on the moon, differ from impacts into solid materials in that the energy is deposited via a serial impact process which affects the rate of deposition of internal (thermal) energy. An exponential model of the process is developed which differs from the usual polynomial models of crater formation. The model is valid for the early time portion of the process and focuses on the deposition of internal energy into the regolith. The model is successfully compared with experimental luminous efficiency data from laboratory impacts and from astronomical determinations and scaling factors are estimated. Further work is proposed to clarify the effects of mass and density upon the luminous efficiency scaling factors

Swift, Wesley R.↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Dust Management Project: Characterizing Lunar Environments and Dust, Developing Regolith Mitigation Technology and Simulants

A return to the Moon to extend human presence, pursue scientific activities, use the Moon to prepare for future human missions to Mars, and expand Earth?s economic sphere, will require investment in developing new technologies and capabilities to achieve affordable and sustainable human exploration. From the operational experience gained and lessons learned during the Apollo missions, conducting long-term operations in the lunar environment will be a particular challenge, given the difficulties presented by the unique physical properties and other characteristics of lunar regolith, including dust. The Apollo missions and other lunar explorations have identified significant lunar dust-related problems that will challenge future mission success. Comprised of regolith particles ranging in size from tens of nanometers to microns, lunar dust is a manifestation of the complex interaction of the lunar soil with multiple mechanical, electrical, and gravitational effects. The environmental and anthropogenic factors effecting the perturbation, transport, and deposition of lunar dust must be studied in order to mitigate it?s potentially harmful effects on exploration systems and human explorers. The Dust Management Project (DMP) is tasked with the evaluation of lunar dust effects, assessment of the resulting risks, and development of mitigation and management strategies and technologies related to Exploration Systems architectures. To this end, the DMP supports the overall goal of the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) of addressing the relevant high priority technology needs of multiple elements within the Constellation Program (CxP) and sister ETDP projects. Project scope, plans, and accomplishments will be presented.

Hyatt, Mark J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Multiphysics Modeling for Dimensional Analysis of a Self-Heated Molten Regolith Electrolysis Reactor for Oxygen and Metals Production on the Moon and Mars

The technology of direct electrolysis of molten lunar regolith to produce oxygen and molten metal alloys has progressed greatly in the last few years. The development of long-lasting inert anodes and cathode designs as well as techniques for the removal of molten products from the reactor has been demonstrated. The containment of chemically aggressive oxide and metal melts is very difficult at the operating temperatures ca. 1600 C. Containing the molten oxides in a regolith shell can solve this technical issue and can be achieved by designing a self-heating reactor in which the electrolytic currents generate enough Joule heat to create a molten bath.

Dominguez, Jesus↗
NASA NTRS2010

Characterization and Evaluation of Lunar Regolith and Simulants

A NASA-ESMD (National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Exploration Systems Mission Directorate) funded senior design project "Mineral Separation Technology for Lunar Regolith Simulant Production" is directed toward designing processes to produce Simulant materials as close to lunar regolith as possible. The eight undergraduate (junior and senior) students involved are taking a systems engineering design approach to identifying the most pressing concerns in simulant needs, then designing subsystems and processing strategies to meet these needs using terrestrial materials. This allows the students to, not only learn the systems engineering design process, but also, to make a significant contribution to an important NASA ESMD project. This paper will primarily be focused on the implementation aspect, particularly related to the systems engineering process, of this NASA EMSD senior design project. In addition comparison of the NASA ESMD group experience to the implementation of systems engineering practices into a group of existing design projects is given.

Cross, William M.↗