Elements of Regolith Simulant's Cost Structure--Why Rock Is NOT Cheap

The cost of lunar regolith simulants is much higher than many users anticipate. After all, it is nothing more than broken rock. This class will discuss the elements which make up the cost structure for simulants. It will also consider which elements can be avoided under certain circumstances and which elements might be altered by the application of additional research and development

Figures of Merit for Lunar Simulants

At an earlier SRR the concept for an international standard on Lunar regolith simulants was presented. The international standard, ISO 10788, Lunar Simulants, has recently been published. This paper presents the final content of the standard. Therefore, we are presenting an update of the following: The collection and analysis of lunar samples from 1969 to present has yielded large amounts of data. Published analyses give some idea of the complex nature of the regolith at all scales, rocks, soils and the smaller particulates commonly referred to as dust. Data recently acquired in support of NASA s simulant effort has markedly increased our knowledge and quantitatively demonstrates that complexity. It is anticipated that future analyses will further add to the known complexity. In an effort to communicate among the diverse technical communities performing research on or research using regolith samples and simulants, a set of Figures of Merit (FoM) have been devised. The objective is to allow consistent and concise comparative communication between researchers from multiple organizations and nations engaged in lunar exploration. This paper describes Figures of Merit in a new international standard for Lunar Simulants. The FoM methodology uses scientific understanding of the lunar samples to formulate parameters which are reproducibly quantifiable. Contaminants and impurities in the samples are also addressed

Overview of NASA Projects

This viewgraph presentation reviews NASA's efforts in Regolith simulants. This effort is in support of future lunar missions

Remote Sensing Information Classification

This viewgraph presentation reviews the classification of Remote Sensing data in relation to epidemiology. Classification is a way to reduce the dimensionality and precision to something a human can understand. Classification changes SCALAR data into NOMINAL data

A Prospect Evaluation for Lunar PGEs

No abstract availabl

Appropriate Simulants are a Requirement for Mars Surface Systems Technology Development

To date, there are two simulants for martian regolith: JSC Mars-1A, produced from palagonitic (weathered) basaltic tephra mined from the Pu'u Nene cinder cone in Hawaii [1] by commercial company Orbitec, and Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS), produced from Saddleback Basalt in the western Mojave desert by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory [2]. Until numerous recent orbiters, rovers, and landers were sent to Mars, weathered basalt was surmised to cover every inch of the martian landscape. All missions since Viking have disproven that the entire martian surface is weathered basalt. In fact, the outcrops, features, and surfaces that are significantly different from weathered basalt are too numerous to realistically count. There are gullies, evaporites, sand dunes, lake deposits, hydrothermal deposits, alluvium, etc. that indicate sedimentary and chemical processes. There is no one size fits all simulant. Each unique area requires its own simulant in order to test technologies and hardware, thereby reducing risk

Usando Teledetección para Identificar la Incidencia de Sedimentos del Canal del Dique en Sistemas Aquaticos Costeros

En este estudio de caso, se usó tecnología de teledetección para analizar la distribución espacial de plumas de sedimentos suspendidos del Canal del Dique, Colombia, en el Mar Caribe y cuerpos de agua costeros. Especialmente para distinguir si dichos sedimentos alcanzan las aguas del complejo coralino de Islas del Rosario. Del “Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)”, se utilizó el producto de reflectancia de superficie (MOD09GQ) para estimar la reflectancia de la superficie del agua (RSA) como sustituto de la concentración de sedimentos suspendidos. Considerando el valor medio de RSA en el primer trimestre de cada año (el cual corresponde al trimestre más seco del año) se determinó la variación temporal interanual en las Islas del Rosario, en las dos bocas principales del Canal del Dique y en la boca principal del río de donde este se desprende, el Río Magdalena. Complementariamente, se usó teledetección para estimar las tendencias interanuales de precipitación en la cuenca hidrográfica del Río Magdalena y se analizó su posible relación con las tendencias de RSA. La precipitación se estimó usando el producto 3B43 V7 de la misión “Tropical Rainforest Meassuring Mission (TRMM)”. No se detectaron incrementos o decrementos en las tendencias interanuales de RSA en alguno de los sitios durante el periodo de estudio 2001-2014 (p> 0,05), pero se detectaron correlaciones significativas entre las tendencias interanuales en RSA en cada desembocadura de las cuenca hidrográfica (r = 0,57-0,90, p < 0,05) y entre éstas y la variación interanual de precipitación en la cuenca (r = 0,63-0,67, p < 0,05). Se detectaron mayores valores de RSA durante los meses de La Niña en comparación a los meses de El Niño. Con esta tecnología fue posible identificar una intersección espacial entre las plumas de sedimentos del Canal del Dique y el sistema coralino de Islas del Rosario

Overview of Figure of Merit Analyses of Simulants and the Fit-to-Use Matrix

This slide slide presentation reviews the lunar regolith simulants and presents a comparison of the different types and their uses. Figures of Merit (FoM) algorithms have been developed to quantitatively compare the distributions in different granular materials. These algorithms have been used to compare the different lunar regolith simulants to the Apollo 16 reference material for composition and particle size distribution. The results of this comparison of the various forms of lunar regolith simulants are examined

Overview of Instruments for Investigating Dust Interactions on Small Solar System Bodies by Landers and Rovers

Small Solar System bodies such as asteroids, comets and Mars\u27 moons Phobos and Deimos have relatively unknown regolith environments. It is hypothesized that dust preserved in the regolith on the surfaces will have similar mechanical properties to lunar dust because of similar formation processes from micrometeoric bombardment, low relative gravity for slow settling times, and virtually no weathering because there is no atmosphere

A Carbonaceous Chondrite Based Simulant of Phobos

In support of an ESA-funded concept study considering a sample return mission, a simulant of the Martian moon Phobos was needed. There are no samples of the Phobos regolith, therefore none of the four characteristics normally used to design a simulant are explicitly known for Phobos. Because of this, specifications for a Phobos simulant were based on spectroscopy, other remote measurements, and judgment. A composition based on the Tagish Lake meteorite was assumed. The requirement that sterility be achieved, especially given the required organic content, was unusual and problematic. The final design mixed JSC-1A, antigorite, pseudo-agglutinates and gilsonite. Sterility was achieved by radiation in a commercial facility