Mechanical properties, such as strength and stiffness, of every Lunar or Martian soil simulant are greatly affected by Earth’s gravitational field. The stronger gravitational pull has made it difficult to simulate effectively high sinkage scenarios in any laboratory environment. Researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center developed a large test bed called the “sink tank” specifically to test rovers in high sinkage/high slip situations. The material Fillite was chosen as the test bed material. Fillite exhibited the desired properties of being light weight, soil like in composition, and capable of being collected in mass quantities. The focus of this study was to determine index and mechanical properties of Fillite to aid in the analysis of rover testing. These properties were found to compare well with what is known about Martian and Lunar regoliths, and also matched closely with some frequently used Martian and Lunar simulants.


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    Title :

    Characterization of Fillite as a Potential Martian Regolith Simulant


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Earth and Space 2014 ; 2014 ; St. Louis, Missouri


    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2015-06-15




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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