The granular mechanics of lunar and Martian regolith remain inadequately understood, impeding progress in successful exploration, landing, drilling, sampling, and construction activities on extraterrestrial surfaces. This study aims to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating the granular behavior of the lunar and Martian regolith under impact conditions. Impact cratering experiments were conducted for the lunar highlands, lunar mare, Martian regolith simulants (LHS-1, LMS-1, and MGS-1, respectively), and terrestrial silica sand with similar particle sizes as target granular materials, with a sphere projectile dropping at low velocities. A systematic analysis was undertaken to elucidate the influence of parameters, including the fall height of the projectile, impact velocity, kinetic energy of the projectile, porosity, cohesion, and internal friction angle, on the resulting crater depths. Our findings demonstrate that the crater depths of regolith layers of the lunar highlands and Martian surfaces are greater than those of the lunar mare regolith and terrestrial silica sand layers. For example, the crater depth of the lunar highland regolith layer is about two times greater than that of the terrestrial silica sand layer at an impact velocity of 40–70 cm/s. Additionally, our power-law scaling highlights less resistance to crater impact in the lunar and Martian regolith layers than in the terrestrial sand layer. Our study highlights a significant difference in granular behavior between the Earth's sand layer and the lunar and Martian regolith layers, providing valuable insights for future exploration, coring, drilling, and resource utilization endeavors on the lunar and Martian surfaces.
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Low-velocity impact response of lunar and Martian regolith simulants: Implications for lunar and Martian surface explorations
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November 2024
Research Article|
November 05 2024
Low-velocity impact response of lunar and Martian regolith simulants: Implications for lunar and Martian surface explorations

Takuma Ishii (石井 琢真)
;
Takuma Ishii (石井 琢真)
a)
(Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
, Fukuoka, Japan
2
Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology
, Bandung, Indonesia
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]. Tel.: +81-92-802-3345 and [email protected]. Tel.: +81-3-5841-8683
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Arata Kioka (喜岡 新)
;
Arata Kioka (喜岡 新)
a)
(Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
, Fukuoka, Japan
3
Cooperative Program for Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
, Fukuoka, Japan
4
Department of Systems Innovation, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
, Tokyo, Japan
a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]. Tel.: +81-92-802-3345 and [email protected]. Tel.: +81-3-5841-8683
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Jyh-Jaan Steven Huang (黃 致展)
;
Jyh-Jaan Steven Huang (黃 致展)
(Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing)
5
Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University
, Taipei, Taiwan
6
Science and Technology Research Institute for DE-Carbonization (STRIDE-C), National Taiwan University
, Taipei, Taiwan
7
Research Center for Future Earth, National Taiwan University
, Taipei, Taiwan
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Yoshiki Tabuchi (田淵 芳樹);
Yoshiki Tabuchi (田淵 芳樹)
(Methodology, Writing – review & editing)
3
Cooperative Program for Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
, Fukuoka, Japan
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Yasuhiro Yamada (山田 泰広)
Yasuhiro Yamada (山田 泰広)
(Supervision)
1
Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
, Fukuoka, Japan
3
Cooperative Program for Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University
, Fukuoka, Japan
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a)Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]. Tel.: +81-92-802-3345 and [email protected]. Tel.: +81-3-5841-8683
Physics of Fluids 36, 113318 (2024)
Article history
Received:
August 18 2024
Accepted:
October 03 2024
Connected Content
A companion article has been published:
Impact craters reveal granular behavior of regoliths
Citation
Takuma Ishii, Arata Kioka, Jyh-Jaan Steven Huang, Yoshiki Tabuchi, Yasuhiro Yamada; Low-velocity impact response of lunar and Martian regolith simulants: Implications for lunar and Martian surface explorations. Physics of Fluids 1 November 2024; 36 (11): 113318. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0233884
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