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Invention of Indian Moon Soil (Lunar Highland Soil Simulant) for Chandrayaan Missions

International Journal of Geosynthetics and Ground Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) planned the Chandrayaan missions 2 and 3 to explore the South Polar Region of the Moon, which is believed to consist of lunar highland soil. As a part of its moon-landing mission, it is necessary to prepare a “lunar surface terrain testbed” so that the lander and rover could be tested under simulated conditions. This has resulted in a requirement of around 50 tons of lunar soil simulant, which can match with actual lunar highland soil with respect to chemical/mineralogical composition, particle size distribution, and some selected geomechanical properties, including the trafficability parameters, as reported in the literature. Though earlier, some countries (like USA, China, and Canada) have produced limited quantities of lunar highland soil simulants (LHSS), as reported in the literature, there was a compelling need to indigenously manufacture a large amount of lunar soil simulant (LSS) under the policy of “MAKE IN INDIA”. This technical note explains the development of a new lunar highland soil simulant LSS-ISAC-1 (that is jointly invented by ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) along with Periyar University, Salem and National Institute of Technology, Trichy—Tamilnadu) and its engineering properties, which was manufactured in a large quantity using the natural terrestrial anorthosite rocks. Furthermore, this note also highlights the futuristic research areas, where this soil simulant can be advantageously used for further research and development works.

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Abbreviations

Φ :

Angle of internal friction

C :

Cohesion

k :

Shear deformation modulus

k c :

Cohesive modulus of deformation

k ϕ :

Frictional modulus of deformation

n :

Sinkage exponent

ρ :

Bulk density

w :

Weight of vehicle on the given wheel

N :

Normal reaction

T :

Torque

F :

Drawball pull

ζdA :

Shear resistance over area dA

ϴ :

Radius of the wheel

ϴ r :

Angle of rear side wheel

ϴ f :

Angle of front side wheel

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Dr. P. Kunhikrishnan, Director-URSC, and Dr. M. Annadurai, former Director, URSC, Indian Space Research Organization, for providing lunar soils and anorthosite samples and their extended support for the success of the research work. The authors also thank the Intellectual Property India of the patent office, Government of India for granting Indian patent (patent number 336998) to the newly developed lunar highland soil simulant (LSS-ISAC-1). This study was funded by Indian Space Research Organization (Grant number ISRO-RESPOND Project No: 426).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. C&MG LEOS, U R Rao Satellite Centre, Indian Space Research Organization, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560 017, India

    I. Venugopal

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, 620015, India

    Kasinathan Muthukkumaran & T. Prabu

  3. LEOS-U R Rao Satellite Centre, Indian Space Research Organization, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560017, India

    K. V. Sriram

  4. Faculty of Science, Centre for Geoinformatics and Planetary Studies, Department of Geology, Periyar University, Salem, Tamilnadu, 636011, India

    S. Anbazhagan

  5. Centre for Applied Geology, Gandhigram Rural Institute Deemed University, Gandhigram, Tamilnadu, 624 302, India

    S. Arivazhagan

  6. School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Perth, WA, 6155, Australia

    Sanjay Kumar Shukla

  7. Department of Civil Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, 110042, India

    Sanjay Kumar Shukla

Authors
  1. I. Venugopal
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  2. Kasinathan Muthukkumaran
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  3. K. V. Sriram
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  4. S. Anbazhagan
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  5. T. Prabu
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  6. S. Arivazhagan
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  7. Sanjay Kumar Shukla
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Correspondence to Kasinathan Muthukkumaran.

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Venugopal, I., Muthukkumaran, K., Sriram, K.V. et al. Invention of Indian Moon Soil (Lunar Highland Soil Simulant) for Chandrayaan Missions. Int. J. of Geosynth. and Ground Eng. 6, 44 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40891-020-00231-0

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