JMSS-1: a new Martian soil simulant

Zeng, Xiaojia; Li, Xiongyao; Wang, Shijie; Li, Shijie; Spring, N.H.; Tang, Hong; Li, Yang; Feng, Junming

doi:10.1186/s40623-015-0248-5

Cited by 50 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The Mars surface is composed primarily of mafic rocks, usually basalts [28][29][30][31]. Basaltic rocks and sediments are composed of varying amounts of olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase, and vitric and lithic fragments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mars Regolith Simulant Ameliorated by Compost as in situ Cultivation Substrate Improves Lettuce Growth and Nutritional Aspects

Duri

El‐Nakhel

Caporale

et al. 2020

Plants

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Heavy payloads in future shuttle journeys to Mars present limiting factors, making self-sustenance essential for future colonies. Therefore, in situ resources utilization (ISRU) is the path to successful and feasible space voyages. This research frames the concept of planting leafy vegetables on Mars regolith simulant, ameliorating this substrate’s fertility by the addition of organic residues produced in situ. For this purpose, two butterhead lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. capitata) cultivars (green and red Salanova®) were chosen to be cultivated in four different mixtures of MMS-1 Mojave Mars simulant:compost (0:100, 30:70, 70:30 and 100:0; v:v) in a phytotron open gas exchange growth chamber. The impact of compost rate on both crop performance and the nutritive value of green- and red-pigmented cultivars was assessed. The 30:70 mixture proved to be optimal in terms of crop performance, photosynthetic activity, intrinsic water use efficiency and quality traits of lettuce. In particular, red Salanova® showed the best performance in terms of these quality traits, registering 32% more phenolic content in comparison to 100% simulant. Nonetheless, the 70:30 mixture represents a more realistic scenario when taking into consideration the sustainable use of compost as a limited resource in space farming, while still accepting a slight significant decline in yield and quality in comparison to the 30:70 mixture.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mars Regolith Simulant Ameliorated by Compost as in situ Cultivation Substrate Improves Lettuce Growth and Nutritional Aspects

Duri

El‐Nakhel

Caporale

et al. 2020

Plants

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“…Schuerger et al (2012) created a series of analog soils by spiking a terrestrial basalt with various salts and carbonates; they used them to test the survival of microbial colonies in martian conditions. Other countries have developed Mars simulants, including a series of nepheline and quartz sands as geotechnical simulants for the European Space Agency (Gouache et al, 2011), terrestrial basalt spiked with magnetite and hematite for China's Mars exploration program (Zeng et al, 2015), and basalt mixed with volcanic glass in New Zealand (Scott et al, 2017). These simulants have not yet been widely distributed or adopted.…”

Section: Previous Mars Simulantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mars Global Simulant MGS-1: A Rocknest-based open standard for basaltic martian regolith simulants

Cannon¹,

Britt²,

Smith³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The composition and physical properties of martian regolith are dramatically better understood compared to just a decade ago, particularly through the use of X-ray diffraction by the Curiosity rover. Because there are no samples of this material on Earth, researchers and engineers rely on terrestrial simulants to test future hardware and address fundamental science and engineering questions. Even with eventual sample return, the amount of material brought back would not be enough for bulk studies. However, many of the existing regolith simulants were designed 10 or 20 years ago based on a more rudimentary understanding of martian surface materials. Here, we describe the Mars Global Simulant (MGS-1), a new open standard designed as a high fidelity mineralogical analog to global basaltic regolith on Mars, as represented by the Rocknest windblown deposit at Gale crater. We developed prototype simulants using the MGS-1 standard and characterized them with imaging techniques, bulk chemistry, spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. We found the characteristics of the MGS-1 based simulant compare favorably to rover- and remote sensing-based observations from Mars, and offer dramatic improvements over past simulants in many areas. Modest amounts of simulant will be produced at the University of Central Florida. By publishing the mineral recipe and production methods, we anticipate that other groups can re-create the simulant and modify it as they see fit, leading to region-specific and application-specific versions based on a common standard.

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“…However, it has been challenging to study these problems as the availability of original extra-terrestrial materials is very limited and for this reason researchers have developed simulants which mimic the real surface properties of extra-terrestrial geological materials [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. With respect to Mars regolith, a number of simulants have been presented in the literature, for example, the JSC Mars-1 by Allen et al [ 17 ], the MMS by Peters et al [ 20 ], the SSC-1 by Scott and Saaj [ 21 ], the JMSS-1 by Zeng et al [ 22 ], the MGS-1 by Cannon et al [ 23 ] and the PSI HX by Wang et al [ 24 ], and different characterizations have been carried to compare the simulants with the original regolith. Some of the major mechanical properties of simulants such as compressibility, friction (strength), and seismic velocities have been explored to provide a comprehensive characterization on their geotechnical and geophysical properties [ 25 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Grain-Scale Study of Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS-1)

Kasyap

Senetakis

2021

Sensors

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Space exploration has attracted significant interest by government agencies and the scientific community in recent years in an attempt to explore possible scenarios of settling of facilities on the Moon and Mars surface. One of the important components in space exploration is related with the understanding of the geophysical and geotechnical characteristics of the surfaces of planets and their natural satellites and because of the limitation of available extra-terrestrial samples, many times researchers develop simulants, which mimic the properties and characteristics of the original materials. In the present study, characterization at the grain-scale was performed on the Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS-1) with emphasis on the frictional behavior of small size samples which follow the particle-to-particle configuration. Additional characterization was performed by means of surface composition and morphology analysis and the crushing behavior of individual grains. The results from the study present for the first time the micromechanical tribological response of Mars simulant, and attempts were also made to compare the behavior of this simulant with previously published results on other types of Earth and extra-terrestrial materials. Despite some similarities between Mars and Moon simulants, the unique characteristics of the MMS-1 samples resulted in significant differences and particularly in severe damage of the grain surfaces, which was also linked to the dilation behavior at the grain-scale.

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JMSS-1: a new Martian soil simulant

Cited by 50 publications

References 54 publications

Mars Regolith Simulant Ameliorated by Compost as in situ Cultivation Substrate Improves Lettuce Growth and Nutritional Aspects

Mars Regolith Simulant Ameliorated by Compost as in situ Cultivation Substrate Improves Lettuce Growth and Nutritional Aspects

Mars Global Simulant MGS-1: A Rocknest-based open standard for basaltic martian regolith simulants

A Grain-Scale Study of Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS-1)

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