Project Sponsor : NASA/SSERVI Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER)
Start Date : 9/2022
Faculty Investigator : Dr. Masatoshi “Toshi” Hirabayashi
Project Status : Ongoing
The main task is to set up a vacuum chamber that can simulate the pressure and temperature conditions of the moon. We aim to achieve pressure of the order of 10e-6 torr and temperature less than 70 K. The end goal of the project is to study the thermal properties of lunar regolith to aid in ISRU applications. ISRU or In-Situ Resource Utilization is a term used to refer to harnessing local natural resources of extraterrestrial bodies, which in our case is the moon, instead of completely relying on the supplies taken from Earth. A key to successful ISRU processes is having a high- fidelity setup for testing the properties of lunar soil, which interfaces with the mission equipment. This is where the vacuum chamber testing of lunar regolith comes into picture.
Team Members: Mariam Zai (PhD student, AE)