Lunar exploration, which slowed in the 21st century after the Apollo program, has seen more activity recently with the participation of Asian countries such as Japan, China, and India. Because lunar modules and rovers cannot be tested directly on lunar soil, these countries have developed lunar simulants. Simulating lunar soil is difficult and expensive because its formation mechanism and geotechnical behavior are comprehensively different from those of the terrestrial soil. Johnson Space Center Number One (JSC-1) and Johnson Space Center Number One A (JSC-1A), developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, are the most widely used simulants. Korea has yet to succeed in developing a lunar simulant that meets international standards. The authors perform basic research on lunar simulant development based on basalt samples having similar chemical and mechanical properties to those of lunar soil, with reference to lunar soil data reported under the Apollo program. The resulting prototype is named Korea Lunar Stimulant-Type 1 (KLS-1). Compared with other lunar simulants [JSC-1 and Fuji Japanese Simulant 1 (FJS-1)], KLS-1 shows promise in terms of affordability and similarity to real lunar soil. As such, it is expected to find a wide variety of applications not only in space development projects but also in international research.

Lunar rover plays an important role in lunar exploration. Especially, performance of rover wheel related to interaction with lunar soil is of great importance when it comes to optimization of rover's configuration. In this study, in order to investigate the motion performance of lunar rover's wheel on Korean Lunar Soil Simulant (KLS-1), a single wheel testbed was developed and used to carry out a series of experiments with two kinds of wheel with grousers and without grousers which were used to perform the experiments. Wheel traction performance was evaluated by using traction parameters such as drawbar pull, torque and sinkage correlated with slip ratio. The results showed that the single wheel testbed was suitable for evaluation of the performance of wheel and rover wheel with grousers which was likely to have higher traction performance than that without grousers in Korean Lunar soil simulant. The experimental results could be utilized in verification of the optimum wheel design and effectiveness of wheel traction for Korean lunar rover.