The stratification of regolith on celestial objects

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Schräpler, Rainer, Blum, Jürgen, von Borstel, Ingo, Güttler, Carsten
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2015
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author Schräpler, Rainer
Blum, Jürgen
von Borstel, Ingo
Güttler, Carsten
author_facet Schräpler, Rainer
Blum, Jürgen
von Borstel, Ingo
Güttler, Carsten
contents All atmosphere-less planetary bodies are covered with a dust layer, the so-called regolith, which determines the optical, mechanical and thermal properties of their surface. These properties depend on the regolith material, the size distribution of the particles it consists of, and the porosity to which these particles are packed. We performed experiments in parabolic flights to determine the gravity dependency of the packing density of regolith for solid-particle sizes of 60 $μ$m and 1 mm as well as for 100-250 $μ$m-sized agglomerates of 1.5 $μ$m-sized solid grains. We utilized g-levels between 0.7 m s$^{-2}$ and 18 m s$^{-2}$ and completed our measurements with experiments under normal gravity conditions. Based on previous experimental and theoretical literature and supported by our new experiments, we developed an analytical model to calculate the regolith stratification of celestial rocky and icy bodies and estimated the mechanical yields of the regolith under the weight of an astronaut and a spacecraft resting on these objects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1505_02923
institution arXiv
publishDate 2015
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The stratification of regolith on celestial objects
Schräpler, Rainer
Blum, Jürgen
von Borstel, Ingo
Güttler, Carsten
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
All atmosphere-less planetary bodies are covered with a dust layer, the so-called regolith, which determines the optical, mechanical and thermal properties of their surface. These properties depend on the regolith material, the size distribution of the particles it consists of, and the porosity to which these particles are packed. We performed experiments in parabolic flights to determine the gravity dependency of the packing density of regolith for solid-particle sizes of 60 $μ$m and 1 mm as well as for 100-250 $μ$m-sized agglomerates of 1.5 $μ$m-sized solid grains. We utilized g-levels between 0.7 m s$^{-2}$ and 18 m s$^{-2}$ and completed our measurements with experiments under normal gravity conditions. Based on previous experimental and theoretical literature and supported by our new experiments, we developed an analytical model to calculate the regolith stratification of celestial rocky and icy bodies and estimated the mechanical yields of the regolith under the weight of an astronaut and a spacecraft resting on these objects.
title The stratification of regolith on celestial objects
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.02923