New Martian Dust Simulant JMDS‐1 and Applications to Laboratory Thermal Conductivity Measurements

Abstract

Martian dust simulant (i.e., a terrestrial substitute for Martian dust) is the basis for experimentally investigating the properties of Martian dust and its effects on Mars exploration activities. In this study, we reported a new Martian dust simulant (Jining Martian Dust Simulant, called JMDS‐1), which was prepared based on terrestrial Jining basalt (90 wt%) and other mineral phases (i.e., 2 wt% magnetite, 2 wt% hematite, 2 wt% anhydrite, 2 wt% calcite, and 2 wt% kaolin). Measurements of JMDS‐1 dust simulant show that JMDS‐1 has a bulk composition, mineralogy, reflectance spectra, and particle characteristics similar to the Martian dust detected by Mars rovers. In addition, we measured the thermal conductivity of dust simulant, soil simulant, and dust‐soil simulant mixtures under simulated Martian conditions (i.e., −30°C; 500–1,000 Pa). The results reveal that the micro‐sized dust simulant has a thermal conductivity of ∼0.015 W/mK, which is two times lower than the thermal conductivity of sub‐millimeter sized soil simulant (i.e., ∼0.035 W/mK). This implies that the dust layer on Mars seems to play a significant role to change the thermal properties of surface materials.

Thermophysical assessment on the feasibility of basal melting in the south polar region of Mars

“…An unrealistic aspect of this model is that the thermal conductivity of the dust at the base of the SPLD would be equivalent to the bulk-thermal conductivity of the dust measured at the surface. The kdust values reported by InSight and laboratory measurements of the Mars simulant are for the bulk, porous dust at the surface [Grott et al, 2021;Yu et al, 2022]. The overburden pressure and pore-filling ice would reduce the pore space within the dust at the base of the SPLD; thus, the results presented in Figure 2 are for a highly optimistic scenario.…”

“…The thermal conductivity of Martian dust is set to 0.039 W m -1 K -1 , as measured by InSight [Grott et al, 2021]. We also consider a slightly lower value of 0.015 W m -1 K -1 based on laboratory measurements of the thermal conductivity of Martian dust simulants [Yu et al, 2022]. The mixing models are coupled with the thermal evolution model because as the thermal model evolves with time, the temperature at any particular depth (z) can change, affecting the thermophysical parameters of the water-ice and the bulk SPLD.…”

Development of a Lizard-Inspired Robot for Mars Surface Exploration

“…Referring to the Martian soil properties [ 31 , 32 ], a testbed was made for mobility test. Figure 12 presents the particle size distribution, which shows that the majority mass (75%) are the particles whose sizes are smaller than 0.1mm.…”

WNMS: A New Basaltic Simulant of Mars Regolith

“…Currently, several simulants exist for lunar and Mars exploration. The Martian simulants include JSC Mars-1 [14], MMS-1, 2, Salten Skov I [15], ES-1, 2, 3, CWRU1 [16], JMSS-1 [17], UC Mars simulant [18], Y-Mars [19], MGS-1 [6] (Cannon et al, 2019), OUCM/EB/HR/SR-1/2 [20], JSC-RN [21], NEU Mars-1 [22], HIT-M-1 [23], JEZ-1 [24], and JMDS-1 [25]. A comparison of some of the simulants is given by Karl et al [26].…”