Experimental Evaluation of Lunar Regolith Settlement Caused by Ice Extraction

Water resources are essential to human exploration in deep space or the establishment of long-term lunar habitation. Ice discovered on the Moon may be useful in future missions to the lunar surface, necessitating the consideration of in situ resource utilization if it is present in sufficient amount...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aerospace 2024-03, Vol.11 (3), p.207
Main Authors: Gong, Zheng, Barnett, Nicholas, Lee, Jangguen, Jin, Hyunwoo, Ryu, Byunghyun, Ko, Taeyoung, Oh, Joung, Dempster, Andrew, Saydam, Serkan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Discovery and exploration
Ice
ice texture
in situ resource utilization
In situ resources utilization
lunar ice
Lunar regolith
Lunar soil
Lunar surface
Mechanical properties
Moon
Phase transitions
Raw materials
Regolith
settlement
Space exploration
Space missions
Water
water content
Water resources
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Summary:Water resources are essential to human exploration in deep space or the establishment of long-term lunar habitation. Ice discovered on the Moon may be useful in future missions to the lunar surface, necessitating the consideration of in situ resource utilization if it is present in sufficient amounts. Extraction of ice can cause the regolith to settle, which can lead to unintended structural damage. Therefore, any settlement resulting from ice extraction should be understood from a geotechnical perspective. This work reports on experimental investigation of the potential settlement caused by the extraction of ice from lunar regolith simulant containing different textures of ice. The KLS-1 simulant was prepared with different water contents and ice textures. Significant settlement occurred in simulant–ice mixtures with initial water contents of 5–10%.
ISSN:2226-4310
2226-4310
DOI:10.3390/aerospace11030207