• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2020

As interest in lunar exploration increases, studies on lunar surface environment simulation including a lunar soil simulant are being conducted. One of the problems when creating a vacuum environment with lunar soil is that it takes long time to reach high vacuum due to outgas from the soil. Most of the outgas is water, and the time to reach high vacuum can be significantly reduced by a pretreatment process that removes moisture adhering to the surface of the lunar soil before putting soil into a vacuum chamber. The existing soil drying methods were examined to determine how these methods were effective to remove moisture from the lunar simulant soil. Drying experiments of lunar soil samples were carried out using a dry oven, a microwave oven, direct heating method and a vacuum oven, and the results of the drying experiment were presented. Drying soil at 110℃ using a dry oven and drying soil by a microwave oven were not enough to remove moisture, and vacuum oven drying method and direct heating drying method at more than 200℃ were effective in water removal.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.53-63
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• 2015

For the success of future missions to the Moon and other similar cosmic environments, understanding and utilization of the lunar regolith has become essential. However, due to the scarcity and unaffordability of real lunar regolith on Earth, a number of lunar regolith simulants (e.g., JSC-1; NASA) have been developed for experimental purposes. However, Korea does not have its own lunar regolith, even though the country is planning to actively pursue lunar and space missions in the 2020s. Thus, this study has been conducted to develop a Korean lunar simulant prototype via basic feasibility attempts (e.g., raw material selection, particle size and chemical composition simulation). Finally, the first prototype of Korea's own lunar simulant has been obtained, and denominated as KLS-1.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.693-703
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• 2017

Rover wheel's mobility depends on soil's condition and wheel's design. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of soil conditions, which are Jumunjin sand and Korean lunar soil simulant (KLS-1), on wheel's motion performance. The experiments were performed by using a single wheel testbed with a wheel which grouser height is 15mm on Jumunjin sand and KLS-1, respectively. Also the influence of grouser length to wheel's mobility performance was studied. The experimental results of torque, drawbar pull and sinkage relating to slip ratio were discussed and analyzed to evaluate wheel's motion performance. Results showed wheel moving on KLS-1 has high performance than Jumunjin sand. Wheel's mobility performance was influenced by soil's properties of cohesion and frictional angle. In addition, wheel's performance of drawbar pull and Torque increased with the increasing of grouser length.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.51-58
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• 2021

South Korea, as the 10th country to join the Artemis program led by NASA, is actively supporting various researches related to the lunar exploration. In particular, the utilization of water as a resource in the Moon has been focused since it was discovered that ice exists at the lunar pole as a form of frozen soil. Information on the thermal conductivity of lunar regolith can be used to estimate the existence for ice water extraction by thermal mining. In this study, the vacuum pressure effect on thermal conductivity of KLS-1 was investigated with a DTVC (Dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber). The reliability of KLS-1 was reconfirmed through comparison with thermal conductivity of known standard lunar regolith simulants such as JSC-1A. An empirical equation to assess thermal conductivity considering dry unit weight and vacuum pressure was proposed. The results from this study can be implemented to simulate lunar cryogenic environment using the DTVC.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.8
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• pp.17-25
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• 2020

Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology has constructed a large scale Dust Thermal Vacuum Chamber to simulate extreme lunar terrestrial environments and to study the Moon as an outposts for space development and exploration. Although a large amount of KLS-1 (Korean Lunar Simulant-1) is required for research, its massive production is practically difficult. This paper describes semi-automatic manufacturing system for massive production of KLS-1 in detail, which is seven times more efficient than manual production. In addition, to increase the similarity with lunar regolith, hydrogen reduction reaction using ilmenite which is one of the minerals was also conducted to simulate nanophase Fe(0) which is the unique property of lunar regolith. As a result, it was found that np-Fe(0) was formed at a temperature of 700℃ or higher, and increased in proportion to the temperature until 900℃.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.13-19
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• 2023

Lunar ice is a resource available for future human exploration in deep space and long-term extraterrestrial habitat. However, the origin and nature of lunar ice remains unclear. In addition to remote sensing, international space agencies are competitively planning and conducting missions for lunar surface exploration to determine the existence and resource extent of lunar ice. If a sufficient amount of lunar ice is confirmed, its future in-situ resource utilization is expected to be greatly beneficial. However, due to ice extraction, settlement may occur, which should be taken into account from a geotechnical engineering perspective. Herein, experimental investigations of the potential settlement caused by lunar ice extraction were conducted and different textures of lunar ice were simulated. Consequently, it was confirmed that significant settlement occurs even at the initial water content of ~10% in lunar regolith simulant-ice-mixed soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.97-108
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• 2016

Lunar rover plays an important role in lunar exploration. Especially, performance of rover wheel related to interaction with lunar soil is of great importance when it comes to optimization of rover's configuration. In this study, in order to investigate the motion performance of lunar rover's wheel on Korean Lunar Soil Simulant (KLS-1), a single wheel testbed was developed and used to carry out a series of experiments with two kinds of wheel with grousers and without grousers which were used to perform the experiments. Wheel traction performance was evaluated by using traction parameters such as drawbar pull, torque and sinkage correlated with slip ratio. The results showed that the single wheel testbed was suitable for evaluation of the performance of wheel and rover wheel with grousers which was likely to have higher traction performance than that without grousers in Korean Lunar soil simulant. The experimental results could be utilized in verification of the optimum wheel design and effectiveness of wheel traction for Korean lunar rover.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.5-17
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• 2021

The Moon has been an attractive planet as an outpost for deep space exploration since He-3 and water ice which can be used as energy resources were discovered. In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) construction material fabrication method is required for sustainable space planet exploration. In this paper, the possibility of microwave sintering technology for construction material fabrication was evaluated using lunar regolith that can be easily collected from the Moon surface. Experimental assessment of the influence factors on microwave sintering was conducted using a hybrid sintering system for efficient processing. The heat distribution in the furnace was observed using thermal paper that is coated with a material formulated to change color when exposed to heat. Based on this result, sintered cylindrical KLS-1s with a diameter of 1 cm and a height of 2 cm were fabricated. Densities were measured for the sintered KLS-1s under rotating turntable conditions that have an effect of microwave dispersion. The more dielectrics were arranged, the more microwaves were dispersed reducing the heat concentration, and thus a uniformity of sintered KLS-1s was enhanced.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.35-46
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• 2022

The in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for sustainable lunar surface and deep space explorations has recently gained attention. Also, research on the development of construction material preparation technology using lunar regolith is in progress. Microwave sintering technology for construction material preparation does not require a binder and is energy efficient. This study applies microwave sintering technology to KLS-1, a Korean lunar simulant. It is crucial to secure the homogeneity to produce a sintered specimen for construction material. Therefore, understanding the interactions between microwaves, cavities, and raw materials is required. Using a numerical model in terms of efficient assessment of several cases and establishment of equipment operating conditions is a very efficient approach. Therefore, this study also proposes and verifies a coupled electric-thermal numerical model through cross-validation and comparison with experimental results. The numerical model proposed in this study will be used to present an efficient method for producing construction material using microwave sintering technology.