Surface Cleanliness Effect on Lunar Soil Shear Strength
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 127, Issue 4
Abstract
Lunar soil consists of dry silty sand. Observations and measurements conducted during Surveyor, Apollo, and Luna missions indicated that the lunar soil is unusually cohesive. This is attributable to the fact that thick layers of adsorbed gases, which coat and lubricate soil particles on Earth, are absent in the ultrahigh vacuum on the Moon. “Surface cleanliness” is introduced as a new parameter for describing soils in different planetary environments. It is defined as the dimensionless inverse of adsorbate thickness on solid surfaces. By this definition, the ultrahigh vacuum on the Moon is associated with high surface cleanliness, while Earth's atmosphere is associated with low surface cleanliness. A model is developed to calculate surface cleanliness and its effect on shear strength in any planetary environment. Results obtained from the model compare well with data from previous ultrahigh vacuum and variable temperature laboratory experiments on Earth soils. It is shown that surface cleanliness is an important parameter with respect to lunar soil shear strength.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Adamson, A. W. ( 1990). Physical chemistry of surfaces, 5th Ed., Wiley, New York.
2.
Arrhenus, G., and Asunmaa, S. K. ( 1973). “Electostatic adhesion of lunar soil particles illustrating non-gravitational growth of small bodies in space.” Proc., 4th Lunar Sci. Conf., Houston.
3.
Bromwell, L. G. ( 1966). “The friction of quartz in high vacuum.” Res. in Earth Physics Phase Rep. No. 7, R66-18, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
4.
Carrier, W. D., III, Bromwell, L. G., and Martin, R. T. (1973). “Behavior of returned lunar soil in vacuum.”J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., ASCE, 99(11), 979–996.
5.
Cherkasov, I. I., and Shvarev, V. V. ( 1974). “Soviet investigations of the mechanics of lunar soils.” Proc., 8th Int. Congr. on Soil Mech. and Found. Engrg., Plenum Publishing, New York, 252–256.
6.
Cherkasov, I. I., and Shvarev, V. V. ( 1975). Lunar soil science, A. Y. Ishlinshii, ed., 92–170.
7.
Cherkasov, I. I., and Shvarev, V. V. ( 1977). “New Soviet investigations of lunar soil and its analogs.” Soil Mech. and Found. Engrg., 5, 320–326.
8.
Choate, R. ( 1969). “Depths of surveyor footpad penetrations at first impact: Their relation to the bearing strength of the lunar soil.” Analysis of surveyor data, NASA, JPL, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., 101–124.
9.
Christensen, E. M. ( 1967). “Lunar surface mechanical properties—Surveyor I.” J. Geophys. Res., 72, 801–813.
10.
Costes, N. C., Carrier, W. D., III, Mitchell, J. K., and Scott, R. F. (1970). “Apollo 11: Soil mechanics results.”J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., ASCE, 96(6), 2045.
11.
Costes, N. C., et al. (1970). “Apollo 11: Soil mechanics results.”J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., ASCE, 96(6), 2045–2080.
12.
Costes, N. C., and Mitchell, J. K. ( 1970). “Apollo 11 soil mechanics investigation.” Proc., Apollo 11 Lunar Sci. Conf., 3, 2025–2044.
13.
Costes, N. C. ( 1971). “Cone penetration resistance test—An approach to evaluating the in-place strength and packing characteristics of lunar soils.” Proc., 2nd Lunar Sci. Conf., 1973–1987.
14.
Gibson, E. K., and Johnson, S. M. ( 1971). “Thermal analysis—Inorganic gas release studies of lunar samples.” Proc., 2nd Lunar Sci. Conf., 1351–1366.
15.
Heiken, G. H., Vaniman, D. T., and French, B. M., eds. ( 1991). Lunar sourcebook, a user's guide to the moon, Cambridge University Press, London.
16.
Hovland, H. J., and Mitchell, J. K. ( 1973). “Boulder tracks and nature of lunar soil.” The Moon 6, Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 164–175.
17.
Israelachvili, J. N. ( 1992). Intermolecular and surface forces, 2nd Ed., Academic, San Diego.
18.
Jaffe, L. D. ( 1967). “Surface structure and mechanical properties of the Lunar Maria.” J. Geophys. Res., 72, 1727–1731.
19.
Jaffe, L. D. ( 1972). “Shear strength of lunar soil from Oceanus Procellarum.” The Moon 8, Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 58–72.
20.
Lide, D. R., ed. ( 1997). Handbook of chemistry and physics, 78th Ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla.
21.
Mitchell, J. K., et al. ( 1972a). “Soil mechanical properties at the Apollo 14 site.” J. Geophys. Res., 77(29), 5641–5664.
22.
Mitchell, J. K. ( 1972b). “Mechanical properties of lunar soil: Density, porosity, cohesion, and angle of internal friction.” Proc., 3rd Lunar Sci. Conf., 3, 3235–3253.
23.
Mitchell, J. K., et al. ( 1972c). “Chapter 7: Soil mechanics experiment.” Apollo 15 Preliminary Sci. Rep., NASA SP-289, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Ctr., National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C.
24.
Mitchell, J. K., et al. ( 1972d). “Chapter 8: Soil mechanics.” Apollo 16 Preliminary Sci. Rep., NASA SP-315, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Ctr., National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C.
25.
Mitchell, J. K., and Durgunoglu, H. T. ( 1973). “In-situ strength by static cone penetration test.” Proc., 8th Int. Congr. on Soil Mech. and Found. Engrg., Moscow, 279–286.
26.
Mitchell, J. K., et al. ( 1973). “Chapter 8: Soil mechanics.” Apollo 17 Preliminary Sci. Rep., NASA SP-330, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Ctr., National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C.
27.
Nelson, J. D. ( 1967). “Environmental effects on engineering properties of simulated lunar soils.” PhD thesis, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
28.
Nelson, J. D., and Vey, E. ( 1968). “Relative cleanliness as a measure of lunar soil strength.” J. Geophys. Res., 73(12), 3747.
29.
Perko, H. A. ( 1996). “Surface cleanliness effect on lunar soil shear strength.” MS thesis, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.
30.
Perko, H. A. ( 1998). “Surface cleanliness based dust adhesion model.” Proc., Space '98, ASCE, Reston, Va., 495–505.
31.
Sadeh, W. Z., and Criswell, M. E. ( 1993). “A strategy for a lunar base.” Proc., 44th Congr. Int. Astronautical Federation, Graz, Austria.
32.
Scott, R. F., and Roberson, F. I. ( 1968). “Soil mechanics surface sampler.” Surveyor VII Mission Rep. Part II: Sci. Results, NASA, JPL, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., 135–186.
33.
Scott, R. F., et al. ( 1971). “Apollo 12 soil mechanics investigation.” , London, 21(1), 1–4.
34.
Scott, R. F. ( 1973). “Lunar soil mechanics.” Proc., 8th Int. Congr. on Soil Mech. and Found. Engrg., Moscow, 177–190.
35.
Surkov, Y. A., et al. ( 1976). “Contact-mechanical properties of lunar soil.” Cosmic Res., 13(6), 827–834.
36.
Vey, E., and Nelson, J. D. (1965). “Engineering properties of simulated lunar soils.”J. Soil Mech. and Found. Div., ASCE, 87(1), 25.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 127 • Issue 4 • April 2001
Pages: 371 - 383
History
Received: Jan 18, 2000
Published online: Apr 1, 2001
Published in print: Apr 2001
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.