The radiation shielding potential of CI and CM chondrites

Pohl, Leoš; Britt, D. T.

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2016.12.028

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…). For practical applications, many C‐complex asteroids contain abundant mineral‐bound OH and H 2 O (Rivkin ) that can be used to produce propellants (Lewis ), and regolith of any composition can be used as radiation shielding (Pohl and Britt ) or as a construction material for structures in space (Mueller et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulated asteroid materials based on carbonaceous chondrite mineralogies

Britt

Cannon

Hanna

et al. 2019

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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A set of high‐fidelity simulated asteroid materials, or simulants, was developed based on the mineralogy of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Three varieties of simulant were developed based on CI1 chondrites (typified by Orgueil), CM2 chondrites (typified by Murchison), and CR2/3 chondrites (multiple samples). The simulants were designed to replicate the mineralogy and physical properties of the corresponding meteorites and anticipated asteroid surface materials as closely as is reasonably possible for bulk amounts. The simulants can be made in different physical forms ranging from larger cobbles to fine‐grained regolith. We analyzed simulant prototypes using scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray fluorescence, reflectance spectroscopy at ambient conditions and in vacuum, thermal emission spectroscopy in a simulated asteroid environment chamber, and combined thermogravimetry and evolved gas analysis. Most measured properties compare favorably to the reference meteorites and therefore to predicted volatile‐rich asteroid surface materials, including boulders, cobbles, and fine‐grained soils. However, there were also discrepancies, and mistakes were made in the original mineral formulations that will be updated in the future. The asteroid simulants are available to the community from the nonprofit Exolith Lab at UCF, and the mineral recipes are freely published for other groups to reproduce and modify as they see fit.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulated asteroid materials based on carbonaceous chondrite mineralogies

Britt

Cannon

Hanna

et al. 2019

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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“…Asteroids, relative to other planetary bodies, are primitive objects that provide information on the nebula from which they formed, the materials that planets formed from and subsequently differentiated, cratering processes, space weathering processes (e.g., Clark et al, 2002), cratering, thermal and aqueous alteration (Keil, 2000), and general regolith formation (Housen et al, 1979;Delbo et al, 2014), and they are also of interest for developing space-based economies and resource utilization systems (Metzger et al, 2013;Mueller et al, 2016;Pohl and Britt, 2017;Mardon and Zhou, 2019;Nadoushan et al, 2020;Srivastava et al, 2023). Asteroids are too small to have atmospheres and also too small to drive internal heat generation processes after the earliest period of Solar System accretion (Housen et al, 1979) so it can be assumed that any regolith present is formed from thermal disintegration, irradiation, collisional events with impactors ranging in size from micrometeorites to other asteroids, and aqueous alteration (Housen et al, 1979;Housen and Wilkening, 1982;Clark et al, 2002;Che and Zega, 2023).…”

Section: Asteroid Regolith Simulantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of planetary regolith simulants for the research and development of space resource technologies

Long-Fox,

Britt

2023

Front. Space Technol.

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Human planetary exploration and colonization efforts are reliant on the ability to safely interact with planetary surfaces and to leverage local regolith as a resource. The high-cost and risk-intensive nature of establishing planetary infrastructure and resource utilization facilities necessitates risk reduction through laboratory-based research and development of space resource acquisition, processing, and extraction technologies using appropriate, well-characterized, mineral-based regolith simulants. Such simulants enable the planetary exploration and resource utilization communities to test large-scale technologies and methodologies for a relatively low cost as an alternative to scarce and expensive returned samples. The fidelity of a regolith simulant for any application is, in part, determined by the mineralogical composition and particle size distribution. The importance of composition is well established for in situ resource utilization studies sensitive to geochemical properties but tends to be ignored in studies concerned with physical properties. Neglecting to consider mineralogy reduces the fidelity of a simulant since each mineral species has its own unique grain density, preferred grain geometry, and intergranular forces, all of which affect the physical properties of the simulant (e.g., shear strength, bearing strength, bulk density, thermal and electrical properties, magnetic properties). Traditionally, regolith simulants have been limited in quantity and availability; Exolith Lab remedies these problems by designing simulants in a constrained maximization approach to fidelity relative to cost, material availability, and safety. Exolith Lab simulants are designed to approximate the mineralogy and particle size ranges of the planetary regolith being simulated, with composition constrained by remote sensing observations and/or returned sample analyses. With facilities and equipment capable of high-volume simulant production, Exolith Lab offers standard simulants in bulk that are readily available for purchase and shipment. This work reviews the production methods, equipment, and materials used to create Exolith Lab simulants, provides compositional data, particle size data, and applications for each standard lunar, Martian, and asteroid simulant that Exolith Lab offers.

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