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Percussive Penetration Of Unconsolidated Granular Media In A Laboratory Setting, Leslie S. Gertsch
Percussive Penetration Of Unconsolidated Granular Media In A Laboratory Setting, Leslie S. Gertsch
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works
This controlled study examined the feasibility of a simple percussive approach to drilling through unconsolidated regolith deposits on Mars. The experiments showed that the approach is feasible at the low power levels and low confining pressures used, and that the rate of impact is more important to the penetration rate than is the mass of the impactor (hammer). More massive impactors tend to lower energy efficiency, as they do in terrestrial pile-driving. Unexpectedly, penetration plotted against applied energy tends to cluster into parallel linear trends. Within a given cluster, penetration is very sensitive to applied energy, while between clusters, the …
Effect Of Water Ice Content On Excavatability Of Lunar Regolith, Leslie S. Gertsch, Robert Gustafson, Richard E. Gertsch
Effect Of Water Ice Content On Excavatability Of Lunar Regolith, Leslie S. Gertsch, Robert Gustafson, Richard E. Gertsch
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works
The amount of water ice contained within prepared samples of JSC-1 lunar regolith simulant strongly affects the excavatability of the material. As part of a NASA Phase I SBIR project, load-penetration testing of JSC-1 lunar regolith simulant was performed at water ice concentrations ranging from zero to 11% by mass (approximately saturated), after compaction and cooling to simulate probable lunar conditions. After mixing dry JSC-1 simulant with the appropriate amount of water, the samples were individually compressed into containment rings under 48 MPa of pressure. Thermocouples embedded in the samples monitored internal temperature while they were cooled in a bath …