Experimental Considerations for Ground-Based Testing of Lunar Construction Technologies

NASA’s Moon-To-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology (MMPACT) project seeks to research, develop, and demonstrate lunar surface construction capabilities

- Quantification of lunar regolith’s geotechnical properties allows for effective prediction of forces and displacement during excavation and construction and is critical to facilitating regolith sintering capabilities all of which benefit lunar infrastructure plans

- Knowledge of shear strength, Mohr-Coulomb cohesion, angle of internal friction, bearing strength, bulk density, etc. is needed

- Ground-based testing of various lunar simulants with relevant hardware (e.g., robotic arm tools) enables validation of technology choices, tool paths, and lunar surface construction activities

- Use of Taguchi methods [1] will minimize the number of needed experiments to explore critical input parameter