Properties and Mechanics of the Lunar Regolith

1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 285-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart W. Johnson ◽  
Koon Meng Chua
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Solar Wind ◽  
Radiation Protection ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Loose Material ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Silicon Iron ◽  
Iron Aluminum ◽  
Lunar Missions

Knowledge of the lunar regolith is essential to success in lunar missions whether crewed or robotic. The regolith is the loose material overlying more intact strata on the Moon. It varies in thickness from several meters on the maria or lunar seas to many meters on the highlands of the Moon. The regolith is the material humans walked and drove on from 1969 to 1972. In the future, people will use it for radiation protection and as a resource for recovery of oxygen, silicon, iron, aluminum, and titanium. Implanted in the regolith by the solar wind are recoverable amounts of volatiles such as hydrogen and helium. Increasing our knowledge of the mechanical properties of the regolith will enable constructors of the 21st Century to build habitats, do mining, establish manufacturing, and erect telescopes on the Moon. We already know much of the regolith from robotic and astronaut missions to the Moon. There is much more to be learned.

scholarly journals Untangling the formation and liberation of water in the lunar regolith

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (23) ◽  
pp. 11165-11170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Zhu ◽  
Parker B. Crandall ◽  
Jeffrey J. Gillis-Davis ◽  
Hope A. Ishii ◽  
John P. Bradley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Hydroxyl Radicals ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Laboratory Simulation ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Simulation Experiments ◽  
Proton Implantation

The source of water (H2O) and hydroxyl radicals (OH), identified on the lunar surface, represents a fundamental, unsolved puzzle. The interaction of solar-wind protons with silicates and oxides has been proposed as a key mechanism, but laboratory experiments yield conflicting results that suggest that proton implantation alone is insufficient to generate and liberate water. Here, we demonstrate in laboratory simulation experiments combined with imaging studies that water can be efficiently generated and released through rapid energetic heating like micrometeorite impacts into anhydrous silicates implanted with solar-wind protons. These synergistic effects of solar-wind protons and micrometeorites liberate water at mineral temperatures from 10 to 300 K via vesicles, thus providing evidence of a key mechanism to synthesize water in silicates and advancing our understanding on the origin of water as detected on the Moon and other airless bodies in our solar system such as Mercury and asteroids.

Indigenous Materials for Lunar Construction

1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 313-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Happel
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Extreme Temperatures ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Glass Composites ◽  
Arch System ◽  
Vacuum Radiation ◽  
Lunar Environment ◽  
Indigenous Materials

An important step in the exploration and colonization of the solar system is to build a permanently inhabited base on the Moon. The lunar environment is stark and hostile to unprotected humans. Structures are needed that protect the inhabitants from vacuum, radiation, extreme temperatures, dust, and meteoroids. Transporting the necessary construction materials from Earth is extremely expensive. Fortunately, lunar structures can be built utilizing indigenous materials. The locally available materials include lunar regolith, cast regolith, glass and glass composites, metals and concrete. Their mechanical properties are summarized and their suitability for lunar construction is evaluated. The most promising materials are cast regolith and lunar glass. Several lunar bases concepts utilizing indigenous materials are described and evaluated. Precast modules and large cast in place structures can be fabricated from lunar concrete. Large cylindrical modules, curved and flat panels and arches cast from lunar regolith are also feasible. A tied arch system is considered very promising because of its structural efficiency.

Lunar Dust

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander V. Zakharov
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Lunar Surface ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Lunar Dust ◽  
Research Programs ◽  
The Impact

The surface of the Moon, as well as the surface of an airless body of the solar system, is subject to constant bombardment of micrometeorites, the effects of solar radiation, solar wind, and other space factors. As a result of the impact of high-speed micrometeorites for billions of years, the silicate base of the lunar surface is crushed, turning into particles with an approximately power-law-sized distribution. Given the explosive nature of the occurrence, these particles are characterized by an extremely irregular shape with pointed edges, either droplets close to spheres or conglomerates sintered at high temperatures. The plasma of the solar wind and the solar radiation, especially its ultraviolet part of the spectrum, when interacting with the upper layer of regolith causes a charge of the regolith upper layer and creates a near-surface double layer and an electric field. In this field, regolith particles of micron and submicron sizes can break away from the surface and levitate above the surface. Such dynamic processes lead to the transfer of dust particles over the surface of the Moon, as well as to the scattering of sunlight on these particles. Glows above the lunar surface of this nature were observed by television systems of American and Soviet landers in the early stages of lunar exploration. The American astronauts who landed on the lunar surface during the Apollo program experienced the aggressive properties of lunar dust. The results of the Apollo missions showed that dust particles are one of the main causes of danger to humans, spacecraft systems, and activities on the lunar surface. Based on the results of late 20th- and early 21st-century lunar research, as well as the proposed models, the article discusses the formation of the lunar regolith and the near-surface exosphere of the Moon under the influence of external factors in outer space. Relevant considerations include the causes and conditions of dust particle dynamics, the consequences of these processes as well as possible threats to humans, engineering systems during the implementation of planned research programs, and the exploration of the Moon. Also of relevance are models of the formation of a plasma-dust exosphere, the dynamics of dust particles in the near-surface region, and dust clouds at a distance of several tens of kilometers from the Moon’s surface, based on the available experimental data. The main unresolved problems associated with the dynamics of the dust component of lunar regolith are given, and methods for solving problematic issues are discussed. The Moon research programs of leading space agencies and their role in the study of Moon dust, its dynamics, human impact, and its activities in the implementation of promising programs for the study and exploration of the Moon are examined.

scholarly journals Dependence of the Hydration of the Lunar Surface on the Concentrations of TiO2, Plagioclase, and Spinel

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Marcel Hess ◽  
Christian Wöhler ◽  
Alexey A. Berezhnoy ◽  
Janice L. Bishop ◽  
Vladislav V. Shevchenko
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Spectral Properties ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Low Energy ◽  
The Moon ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Band Depth

We investigate the interrelation between the hydration of the lunar regolith and the mineral composition of the surface of the Moon with respect to the concentrations of plagioclase, TiO2 (highly correlated with the oxide mineral ilmenite), and Mg-spinel. The spectral properties of lunar regions with a low concentration of plagioclase or a high concentration of TiO2 or Mg-spinel show a significant reduction in hydration at lunar midday compared to other compositions. This suggests that these oxide minerals contain less of the strongly bound OH component, which is not removed at lunar midday. The time-of-day-dependent variation of the 3 μm band depth is greater in TiO2-rich areas compared to other mare regions. The TiO2-rich regions therefore appear to have a strong tendency to adsorb solar wind-induced hydrogen into binding states of low energy that can more readily desorb and readsorb OH/H2O on a daily basis.

scholarly journals Rock Location and Property Analysis of Lunar Regolith at Chang’E-4 Landing Site Based on Local Correlation and Semblance Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Hanjie Song ◽  
Chao Li ◽  
Jinhai Zhang ◽  
Xing Wu ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Rock Properties ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Local Correlation ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Property Analysis ◽  
Stratigraphic Division ◽  
Formation And Evolution

The Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) onboard the Yutu-2 rover from China’s Chang’E-4 (CE-4) mission is used to probe the subsurface structure and the near-surface stratigraphic structure of the lunar regolith on the farside of the Moon. Structural analysis of regolith could provide abundant information on the formation and evolution of the Moon, in which the rock location and property analysis are the key procedures during the interpretation of LPR data. The subsurface velocity of electromagnetic waves is a vital parameter for stratigraphic division, rock location estimates, and calculating the rock properties in the interpretation of LPR data. In this paper, we propose a procedure that combines the regolith rock extraction technique based on local correlation between the two sets of LPR high-frequency channel data and the common offset semblance analysis to determine the velocity from LPR diffraction hyperbola. We consider the heterogeneity of the regolith and derive the relative permittivity distribution based on the rock extraction and semblance analysis. The numerical simulation results show that the procedure is able to obtain the high-precision position and properties of the rock. Furthermore, we apply this procedure to CE-4 LPR data and obtain preferable estimations of the rock locations and the properties of the lunar subsurface regolith.

Foreshock ULF fluctuations near the Moon: THEMIS observations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Salohub ◽  
Jana Šafránková ◽  
Zdeněk Němeček
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Rest Frame ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Solar Wind Plasma ◽  
Turbulent Plasma ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Ulf Waves ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Shock Surface ◽  
The Earth

<p>The foreshock is a region filled with a turbulent plasma located upstream the Earth’s bow shock where interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) lines are connected to the bow shock surface. In this region, ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves are generated due to the interaction of the solar wind plasma with particles reflected from the bow shock back into the solar wind. It is assumed that excited waves grow and they are convected through the solar wind/foreshock, thus the inner spacecraft (close to the bow shock) would observe larger wave amplitudes than the outer (far from the bow shock) spacecraft. The paper presents a statistical analysis of excited ULF fluctuations observed simultaneously by two closely separated THEMIS spacecraft orbiting the Moon under a nearly radial IMF. We found that ULF fluctuations (in the plasma rest frame) can be characterized as a mixture of transverse and compressional modes with different properties at both locations. We discuss the growth and/or damping of ULF waves during their propagation.</p>

scholarly journals Remotely distinguishing and mapping endogenic water on the Moon

2017 ◽  
Vol 375 (2094) ◽  
pp. 20150391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel L. Klima ◽  
Noah E. Petro
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Testing Hypotheses ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Lunar Interior ◽  
Geological Features ◽  
Insight Into

Water and/or hydroxyl detected remotely on the lunar surface originates from several sources: (i) comets and other exogenous debris; (ii) solar-wind implantation; (iii) the lunar interior. While each of these sources is interesting in its own right, distinguishing among them is critical for testing hypotheses for the origin and evolution of the Moon and our Solar System. Existing spacecraft observations are not of high enough spectral resolution to uniquely characterize the bonding energies of the hydroxyl molecules that have been detected. Nevertheless, the spatial distribution and associations of H, OH − or H 2 O with specific lunar lithologies provide some insight into the origin of lunar hydrous materials. The global distribution of OH − /H 2 O as detected using infrared spectroscopic measurements from orbit is here examined, with particular focus on regional geological features that exhibit OH − /H 2 O absorption band strengths that differ from their immediate surroundings. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The origin, history and role of water in the evolution of the inner Solar System’.

scholarly journals Absence of a long-lived lunar paleomagnetosphere

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (32) ◽  
pp. eabi7647
Author(s):  
John A. Tarduno ◽  
Rory D. Cottrell ◽  
Kristin Lawrence ◽  
Richard K. Bono ◽  
Wentao Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Earth’S Magnetosphere ◽  
Solar Winds ◽  
Planetary Bodies ◽  
Earth's Magnetosphere ◽  
Impact Glass ◽  
Magnetic Inclusions

Determining the presence or absence of a past long-lived lunar magnetic field is crucial for understanding how the Moon’s interior and surface evolved. Here, we show that Apollo impact glass associated with a young 2 million–year–old crater records a strong Earth-like magnetization, providing evidence that impacts can impart intense signals to samples recovered from the Moon and other planetary bodies. Moreover, we show that silicate crystals bearing magnetic inclusions from Apollo samples formed at ∼3.9, 3.6, 3.3, and 3.2 billion years ago are capable of recording strong core dynamo–like fields but do not. Together, these data indicate that the Moon did not have a long-lived core dynamo. As a result, the Moon was not sheltered by a sustained paleomagnetosphere, and the lunar regolith should hold buried 3He, water, and other volatile resources acquired from solar winds and Earth’s magnetosphere over some 4 billion years.

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