Geotechnical Properties of Fillite—Simulant for Planetary Rover Mobility Studies
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 5
Abstract
Earthbound testing of the mobility of lunar, Martian, and other extraterrestrial rovers benefits from the use of suitable soil simulants. To this end, a granular material called Fillite was selected as a simulant for modeling high-sinkage, high-slip situations that could be encountered by rovers, such as the one encountered by the Spirit rover on Mars. Fillite consists of alumino-silicate hollow microspheres harvested from the pulverized fuel ash of coal-fired power plants. It is available in large quantities at a reasonable cost and it is chemically inert. The focus of this paper is to summarize geotechnical characterization of Fillite, specifically the mechanical properties such as shear strength parameters, elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and small-strain shear modulus. These measured properties are expected to enable analysis of rover mobility tests conducted in Fillite. The properties of Fillite are compared with the known and estimated properties of Martian and lunar regoliths as well as of other commonly used simulants. Fillite is quite dilatant. The peak and critical angles of internal friction of Fillite are smaller than those of most other simulants. Smaller shear strength, coupled with much smaller bulk unit weight as compared to other simulants, would result in smaller bearing and shearing resistances. This is expected to allow for better simulation of the intended high-sinkage, high-slip environment for rover mobility studies.
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Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the Vermont Space Grant under NASA Cooperative Agreement #NNX10AK67H. The authors are grateful to Mr. Colin Creager and Dr. Juan Agui of NASA Glenn Research Center for providing Fillite and general support for the study. The Authors are also thankful for Dr. Adam Sevi’s assistance in conducting maximum and minimum density tests and for Dr. Lalita Oka’s assistance in in conducting bender element tests reported here.
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Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 5 • September 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 25, 2014
Accepted: Dec 10, 2015
Published online: Mar 11, 2016
Discussion open until: Aug 11, 2016
Published in print: Sep 1, 2016
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