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Completed TRL 4 (started at 2, targeting 4)
Uncertainty in the soil conditions of lunar regolith and the reduced gravity environment make it difficult to design and validate ISRU tools. Devices for bulk preparation of regolith feedstock are essential for future ISRU missions. This project will develop a soil conditioning device for preparing simulant to a known state. This device will add to the available toolset for ISRU mission planning and enable higher fidelity testing of soil manipulation and excavation tools. With a known soil state, low reaction force excavation tools needed for reduced gravity environments can be developed and characterized with high level of confidence for ISRU missions.
A soil conditioning device that repeatably prepares lunar or planetary regolith simulant to simulate in-situ geotechnical properties will enable a capability to develop ISRU tools and other surface assets that interact with soils with designs optimized for operational human and robotic spaceflight environments.
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