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Three-dimensional characterization of particle size, shape, and internal porosity for Apollo 11 and Apollo 14 lunar regolith and JSC-1A lunar regolith soil simulant

Published

Author(s)

Jay Goguen, Andrew Sharits, Ann Chiaramonti Debay, Thomas V. Lafarge, Edward Garboczi

Abstract

Samples of soils collected by the Apollo 11 mission (10084) and the Apollo 14 mission (14163) were obtained from the NASA CAPTEM program. The particle size, shape, and internal porosity were characterized in three dimensions (3D) using a combination of X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and mathematical analysis, with various size and shape parameters measured and calculated for each particle. The purpose of this investigation was to obtain a database of 3D mathematical descriptions of the lunar soil so that light-scattering calculations could be made using this data on real lunar soil particles. This database is available through NIST. High-resolution SEM was also used to image the particles that were too small for the two XCT instruments used. Similar characterization was carried out on samples of JSC-1A lunar soil simulant, updating previous analysis, so that the 3D shape of real and simulated lunar soil can be quantitatively compared. Approximately 14,000 lunar regolith particles and 128,000 JSC1-A particles, each covering a wide range of size and shape, were characterized for this paper.
Citation
Icarus
Volume
420

Keywords

lunar regolith, Apollo 11, 10084, Apollo 14, 14163, JSC-1A, light scattering, three dimensional, size characterization, shape characterization, X-ray computed tomography

Citation

Goguen, J. , Sharits, A. , Chiaramonti Debay, A. , Lafarge, T. and Garboczi, E. (2024), Three-dimensional characterization of particle size, shape, and internal porosity for Apollo 11 and Apollo 14 lunar regolith and JSC-1A lunar regolith soil simulant, Icarus, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2024.116166, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956812 (Accessed July 27, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created June 8, 2024, Updated July 24, 2024