Gas permeability and flow characterization of simulated lunar regolith

Recent discoveries of water ice trapped within lunar topsoil (regolith) have placed a new emphasis on the recovery and utilization of water for future space exploration. Upon heating the lunar ice to sublimation, the resulting water vapor could theoretically transmit through the lunar regolith, to be captured on the surface. As the permeability of lunar regolith is essential to this process, this paper seeks to experimentally determine the permeability and flow characteristics of various gas species through simulated lunar regolith (SLR). Two different types of SLR were compacted and placed into the permeability setup to measure the flow-rate of transmitted gas through the sample. Darcy’s permeability constant was calculated for each sample and gas combination, and flow characteristics were determined from the results. The results show that Darcy’s permeability constant varies with SLR compaction density, and identified no major difference in permeable flow between the several tested gas species. Between the two tested SLR types, JSC-1A was shown to be more permeable than NU-LHT under similar conditions. In addition, a transition zone was identified in the flow when the gas pressure differential across the sample was less than ∼40 kPa.     

Production of high fidelity lunar agglutinate simulant

As space faring nations consider manned and unmanned missions to the Moon, there is a growing need to develop high fidelity lunar regolith simulants that can accurately reproduce the properties and behavior of lunar regolith. Such simulants will be employed to verify the performance of equipment, mechanisms, structures and processes to be used on the lunar surface. One of the significant limitations of current terrestrial-based simulants, such as the popular mare simulant, JSC-1A, is the lack of agglutinates. This paper investigates the production of a lunar mare agglutinate simulant based on JSC-1A. A modified plasma processing technique was used to expose the JSC-1A regolith simulant to high temperatures and transform it to predominantly a glassy phase. Detailed characterization results are presented to confirm that the agglutinate simulant material produced during this investigation reasonably satisfies the primary requirements of an agglutinate simulant such as amorphous/crystalline content, particle size, morphology, vesicular structure, chemistry, and presence of nanophase elemental Fe.     

Ares V launch vehicle: An enabling capability for future space science missions

NASA's planned Ares V cargo launch vehicle offers the potential to completely change the paradigm of future space science mission architectures. Future space science telescopes desire increasingly larger telescope collecting aperture. But, current launch vehicle mass and volume constraints are a severe limit. The Ares V greatly relaxes these constraints. For example, while current launch vehicles have the ability to place a 4.5 m diameter payload with a mass of 9400 kg on to a Sun-Earth L2 transfer trajectory, the Ares V is projected to have the ability to place an 8.8 m diameter payload with a mass of approximately 60,000 kg on to the same trajectory, or 180,000 kg into Low Earth Orbit. Also the Ares V could place approximately 3000 kg (13,000 kg with a Centaur upper stage) on to a trajectory with a C3 of 106 km²/s², arriving at Saturn in 6.1 years without the use of gravity assists. This paper summarizes the current planned Ares V payload launch capability.     

Upwards migration phenomenon on molten lunar regolith: New challenges and prospects for ISRU

As part of our research on the feasibility of producing commodities from lunar regolith by thermal-driven processes with minimal terrestrial precursors we need to characterize, reproduce, and understand thermophysical properties of the molten regolith still unforeseen under the lunar vacuum conditions at a scalable sample size. Two unanticipated phenomena, apparently caused by lunar melt’s surface tension under vacuum, have been revealed in our research work, vacuum void formation and upwards migration. In this paper we present our findings and thinkable explanation on the upwards migration phenomenon experimentally observed and consistently replicated as JSC-1A lunar regolith simulant melted at high vacuum. Upwards migration of molten lunar regolith will make future lunar ISRU’s melting processes both challenging as molten bulk material would migrate upwards along the container’s walls, and also promising on new opportunities for alternative ISRU’s sustainable processes as regolith’s upwards migration takes place in uniformed thin-film pattern. Among the potential ISRU’s processes that might use controlled thermal thin-film-based migration without the necessity of terrestrial precursors are production of feedstock for 3D printing, fractional separation of regolith’s component’s (O₂, metals, and alloys) via pyrolysis, film coating, purification of valuables solid crystals including silicon, and fabrication of key elements for microfluidic, and MEMS devices. Thermal upwards migration phenomenon on JSC-1A’s melt is formulated and explained by the authors as due to thermal Marangoni effect (also known as thermo-capillarity) in which temperature gradients within the melt’s bulk and along the crucible’s wall yield the surface tension large enough to supersede the gravitational force and yield the experimentally observed upwards thin-film migration. As far as the authors know, upwards thermal migration of molten JSC-1A (or other lunar simulant regolith) under vacuum has not been reported in the literature. A thermal mathematical model accounting for thermal Marangoni effect on molten JSC-1A agrees with what experimentally was observed, the formation of the meniscus on the melt-wall surface interface along with an incipient upwards migration in thin-film pattern along the crucible wall that, according to the model, experiences large temperature gradient, an important factor to trigger the thermal Marangoni effect along with the fact that surface tension of the molten lunar regolith material is temperature dependent.     

太阳轨道运动的2400年周期与轨道周期

通过对行星会合指数运动学方程生成的数据进行傅里叶变换, 得到了从年、十年、 百年、千年、万年到十万年时间尺度的周期, 发现这些周期具有后者是前者10n 倍的特殊倍乘关系. 如果将通过傅里叶变换得到的年时间尺度最显 著的周期4.96488a设为单位时间步长代入行星会合指数方程, 则可得到稳定 的2400年周期. 在此基础上由2400年周期振幅的差异性又构成了更长时间尺度的 10万年和40～41万年太阳轨道运动特征周期. 这对于揭示太阳轨道运动与太 阳活动的关系, 以及探讨气候千年尺度和轨道周期变化规律的机制具有重要意义.      

Toward a global space exploration program: A stepping stone approach

In response to the growing importance of space exploration in future planning, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Panel on Exploration (PEX) was chartered to provide independent scientific advice to support the development of exploration programs and to safeguard the potential scientific assets of solar system objects. In this report, PEX elaborates a stepwise approach to achieve a new level of space cooperation that can help develop world-wide capabilities in space science and exploration and support a transition that will lead to a global space exploration program. The proposed stepping stones are intended to transcend cross-cultural barriers, leading to the development of technical interfaces and shared legal frameworks and fostering coordination and cooperation on a broad front. Input for this report was drawn from expertise provided by COSPAR Associates within the international community and via the contacts they maintain in various scientific entities. The report provides a summary and synthesis of science roadmaps and recommendations for planetary exploration produced by many national and international working groups, aiming to encourage and exploit synergies among similar programs. While science and technology represent the core and, often, the drivers for space exploration, several other disciplines and their stakeholders (Earth science, space law, and others) should be more robustly interlinked and involved than they have been to date. The report argues that a shared vision is crucial to this linkage, and to providing a direction that enables new countries and stakeholders to join and engage in the overall space exploration effort. Building a basic space technology capacity within a wider range of countries, ensuring new actors in space act responsibly, and increasing public awareness and engagement are concrete steps that can provide a broader interest in space exploration, worldwide, and build a solid basis for program sustainability. By engaging developing countries and emerging space nations in an international space exploration program, it will be possible to create a critical bottom-up support structure to support program continuity in the development and execution of future global space exploration frameworks. With a focus on stepping stones, COSPAR can support a global space exploration program that stimulates scientists in current and emerging spacefaring nations, and that will invite those in developing countries to participate—pursuing research aimed at answering outstanding questions about the origins and evolution of our solar system and life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere). COSPAR, in cooperation with national and international science foundations and space-related organizations, will advocate this stepping stone approach to enhance future cooperative space exploration efforts.     

Proposal for a multiple-asteroid-flyby mission with sample return

Asteroid exploration provides a new approach to study the formation of the solar system and the planetary evolution. Choosing a suitable target and designing of feasible profile for asteroid mission are challenging due to constraints such as scientific value and technical feasibility. This paper investigates a feasible mission scenario among the potential candidates of multiple flybys and sample return missions. First, a group of potential candidates are selected by considering the physical properties and accessibility of asteroids, for the sample return missions. Second, the feasible mission scenarios for multiple flybys and sample return missions to various spectral-type asteroids are investigated. We present the optimized design of preliminary interplanetary transfer trajectory for two kinds of missions. One is the single sample return mission to asteroids with various spectral types. The other is the multiple flybys and sample return mission to several asteroids. In order to find the optimal profiles, the planetary swing-by technique and Differential Evolution algorithm are used.     

Planetary protection implementation on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission

In August 2005 NASA launched a large orbiting science observatory, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), for what is scheduled to be a 5.4-year mission. High resolution imaging of the surface is a principal goal of the mission. One consequence of this goal however is the need for a low science orbit. Unfortunately this orbit fails the required 20-year orbit life set in NASA Planetary Protection (PP) requirements [NASA. Planetary protection provisions for robotic extraterrestrial missions, NASA procedural requirements NPR 8020.12C, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, April 2005.]. So rather than sacrifice the science goals of the mission by raising the science orbit, the MRO Project chose to be the first orbiter to pursue the bio-burden reduction approach.     

The high precision gamma-ray spectrometer for lunar polar orbiter SELENE

The high precision gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) is scheduled to be launched on the lunar polar orbiter of the SELENE mission in 2007. The GRS consists of a large Ge crystal as a main detector and massive bismuth germanate crystals as an anticoincidence detector. A Stirling cryocooler was adopted in cooling the Ge detector. The flight model of SELENE GRS has been completed and an energy resolution of 3.0 keV (FWHM) at 1.332 MeV has been achieved. The spectrometer aims to observe nuclear line gamma rays emitted from the lunar surface in a wide energy range from 100 keV to 12 MeV for one year and more to obtain chemical composition on the entire lunar surface. The gamma-ray data enable us to study lunar geoscience problems including crust and mantle composition, and volatile reservoirs at polar regions.     

Penetration testing for the Optical Probe for Regolith Analysis (OPRA)

The Optical Probe for Regolith Analysis (OPRA) is a spike-shaped subsurface analytical probe that will be delivered to a planet, asteroid, or cometary body by a lander and/or rover. OPRA will be pushed down into the subsurface to record near infrared spectra as a function of depth down to maximum of 50 cm. Therefore, knowledge of the required penetration force to specific depths can be helpful in estimating the length of the probe. Test probes covering the anticipated diameter (2.5, 1.9, 1.2 and 0.9 cm diameter) and tip angle (T.A. = 30°, 60°, 90° and 120°) of OPRA were inserted mechanically into dry playground sand. The results showed that tip angle does not have a major effect, while probe diameter and density of the regolith are the most important parameters. Increasing probe diameter from 0.9 to 1.9 cm (i.e. a factor of 2) leads to an increase in penetration force from 200 to 1000 N (i.e. a factor of 5) at 20 cm depth. An increase in bulk density (B.D.) from 1550 to 1700 kg m⁻³ leads to an increase in penetration force from 10 to 200 N at 20 cm depth. Bearing capacity theory was used to explain the downward movement of the penetrometer through regolith and showed good agreement with the experimental results. This model was then used to take into account the effect of gravity on other planetary bodies. We observed a good agreement between the theoretical model and results from penetration testings on the Moon by the Apollo missions. Since the maximum allowed force for penetration is the weight of the lander/rover on their targeted planetary surface, our results put a strong constraint on the maximum reachable depth without endangering the whole mission.