Engineering Commons^™

Gravity Fed Hopper Flow Of Bulk Solids For Lunar Isru, Jason Bendixen Noe

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With the return to the moon in the decade of the 2020s, there has been a renaissance of lunar technology development and innovation. This has been particularly true for the area of lunar ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization). One key area in ISRU that has been neglected is lunar regolith storage hopper research. Many lunar regolith ISRU researchers use storage hoppers in their work but do not document the properties when designing the hoppers or do not have the information at hand. Because of this, hopper design and documentation are poorly understood, and more research is needed. Hoppers are vital for …

Calorimetric Measurements Of Lunar Regolith Simulant And Water. An Experimental Study Correlating Weight Percent Water And Temperature Change Through Periods Of Phase Change., George B. Johnson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Permanently Shaded Regions (PSRs) are cold traps located around the lunar south pole that have been confirmed to contain possible interesting quantities or volatiles such as H2O, CO2, SO2, CH4, and others. [1] The identification of these volatiles on the lunar surface was a critical step in the development of NASA’s strategic goals for scientific discoveries, sustained space travel and exploration, and re-establishing a human presence on the moon. These volatiles are vital to the future of operating in and exploring space. The LCROSS impact revealed the existence of these resources in PSRs but more information is needed about the …

Geotechnical Aspects Of Martian Regolith Simulant Jsc Mars-1, Jesus Baca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The primary objective of this research was to mechanistically characterize the physical and mechanical properties of the JSC Mars-1 regolith simulant to better understand its physical, mechanical, and physio-chemical properties. JSC Mars-1 is a regolith simulant developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) based on the data collected by instruments on the Viking and the Pathfinder landers. A comprehensive experiment matrix was devised to simulate the extraterrestrial compaction characteristics of unbound simulants in the laboratory. The resilient properties, strength parameters, and deformation potential were of primary interest in this effort. In addition, …

Generating And Measuring Prescribed Levels Of Cohesion In Soil Simulants In Support Of Extraterrestrial Terramechanics Research, Laura Obregon

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Scientists have been well aware of the complexity of Martian and lunar regoliths. There are vast unexplored areas on both, the Moon and Mars, as well as uncertainties in our understanding of the physicochemical properties of their regoliths. Lunar and Martian regoliths differ from terrestrial soils in that they appear granular, but are expected to contain some cohesion. As such, cohesion in regolith poses challenges for future space operations, more specifically for landing, settlement, and mobility purposes. The ability to induce prescribed levels of cohesion in regolith simulants and reliably measure it would allow scientists to evaluate space technology limitations …

Evaluation Of Radiation And Design Criteria For A Lunar Habitat, Hayley E. Bower, Daniel Gomez, Antonio Bobet, Julio A. Ramirez, Shirley J. Dyke, H. Jay Melosh

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Extraterrestrial habitation has long been the object of science fiction, and experts in the fields of science and engineering have proposed many designs for a lunar base. The research conducted has focused on either structural stability, radiation protection, or meteorite-impact vulnerabilities, but rarely have these been considered together. The Resilient ExtraTerrestrial Habitats (RETH) project aims to design a lunar habitat from a hazards perspective, considering general degradation, meteorite impacts, seismic activity, radiation exposure, thermal extremes, and geomagnetic storms in addition to the physiological, psychological, and sociological aspects of astronauts living in such a habitat. Several members of the RETH team …

Magnesium-Based Combustion Synthesis Of Advanced Materials For Energy And Space Applications, Armando Delgado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As energy problems become more challenging, interest in low-energy-consuming methods for the fabrication of materials increases. Combustion synThesis is one such method because it is sustained by reaction heat release instead of external energy input. In the present work, combustion synThesis approaches are applied to the production of construction materials from lunar and Martian regolith and to the fabrication of magnesium silicide (Mg2Si), a promising thermoelectric material for high-temperature applications. In both cases, magnesium (Mg) was used as one of the main reactants and similar experimental approaches were employed.

Recently, it has been proposed to use combustion of lunar regolith …

Effects Of Grain Properties And Compaction On Single-Tool Normal Indentation Of Granular Materials, Dennis Chieze Duru

Masters Theses

"The behavior of three granular materials; filter sand, crushed garnet, and shale cutting, were investigated in an effort to evaluate the effect of grain size and shape, and material compaction under single tool load-indentation test. Force-penetration data was collected continuously through the end of each test and specific energy and specific penetration was calculated from the data.

Grain size and compaction affected the force penetration behavior. The higher the grain size, the more the fluctuation in the force of penetration. In addition, compaction reduces the force fluctuation in the fine aggregate grains, but increases the magnitude of the force fluctuations …

Verification Of Particle Image Velocimeter For Study Of Martian And Lunar Regoliths, Kristopher Burch, Eric Wright, Jozey Mitcham, Alfredo Bravo Iniguez

College of Engineering Poster Presentations

The behavior of dust, or regolith, on Mars and the moon is critical to our understanding of the Martian and lunar environments. The dust interaction with space suits and other equipment is a major concern for long term space missions. Dust on the moon greatly deteriorated the space suits in NASA’s Apollo program. We have developed a test enclosure for the study of dust motion. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) to measure the velocity and size of thousands of moving particles. The PIV was developed as a demonstration project for use on possible …

On The Extraction Of Volatiles From Lunar Regolith Using Solar Power, Jorge Alberto Frias

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recent lunar missions have confirmed the presence of water and miscellaneous volatiles within the craters of the Moon's South Pole. If harvested, these resources have the potential to provide an incredible budget saving to the human space exploration program by dropping the total mass that astronauts need to carry from the Earth. The area that develops these technologies is called In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). ISRU allows reducing the payload, and consequently reduces the energy consumption and cost of space exploration. The present thesis investigates methods for the extraction of volatiles from regolith within the shadowed craters of the Moon using …

Experimental Investigation Of Magnesium/Regolith Combustion For In-Situ Production Of Materials On The Moon, Christopher White

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Future settlements on the Moon will require that strong, cost-effective structural materials be developed in whole or in part from locally available resources. Such materials can be created in-situ from the lunar regolith using self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). By mixing the lunar regolith with metal additives, such as aluminum or magnesium, a combustible mixture is formed which, when ignited, can reach temperatures high enough to allow combustion to be self-sustaining, sintering the lunar regolith without further energy input and without the need for atmospheric oxygen. The resulting products may be strong enough for some structural applications, such as radiation shielding, …

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

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 …