Generation of Requirements for Simulant Measurements. Revised, May 30, 2010

By National Aeronautics and Space Administration

This document provides a formal, logical explanation of the parameters selected for the Figure of Merit algorithm used to evaluate lunar regolith simulant. The objectives, requirements, assumptions and analysis behind the parameters is provided. From NASA's objectives for lunar simulants a requirement is derived to verify and validate simulant performance versus lunar regolith. This requirement leads to a specification that comparative measurements be taken the same way on the regolith and the simulant. In turn this leads to a set of 9 criteria with which to evaluate comparative measurement. Many of the potential measurements of interest are not defensible under these criteria, for example many geotechnical properties of interest were not explicitly measured during Apollo and they can only be measured in situ on the Moon. A 2005 workshop identified 32 properties of major interest to users (Sibille Carpenter Schlagheck, and French, 2006). Virtually all of the properties are tightly constrained, though not predictable, if just four parameters are controlled. Three: composition, size and shape, are recognized as being definable at the particle level. The fourth, density, is a bulk property. In recent work a fifth parameter has been identified, which will need to be added to future releases of the Figure of Merit: spectroscopy. Rickman, Doug and Edmunson, Jennifer Marshall Space Flight Center M10-0745

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1794317309
• ISBN13: 9781794317307
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 30 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 11.0"