Planetary Simulant Database

Free Resource for Regolith Simulant Information

Mineralogy

This is the mineralogy for bulk BP-1; separate splits give somewhat different values.

Mineral	Weight %
Labradorite	60.7
Augite	23.7
Olivine	6.2
Magnetite	3.0
Calcite	2.7
Hematite	2.0
Quartz	1.7

Bulk Chemistry

Two samples from the west and east of the flow are given by Stoeser et al. (2010):

Oxide	W172158	W172154
SiO₂	47.2	46.9
TiO₂	2.3	2.2
Al₂O₃	16.7	16.4
FeO	6.2	3.7
Fe₂O₃	5.9	8.2
MgO	6.5	5.6
CaO	9.2	9.6
Na₂O	3.5	3.4
K₂O	1.1	1.1
MnO	0.21	0.21
P₂O₅	0.52	0.51
H₂O-	0.11	0.51
H₂O+	0.41	0.69
CO₂	0.05	0.26
Total	99.90	99.28

Physical Properties

Property	Value
Specific gravity	2.81
Minimum density	1.43 g/cm³
Maximum density	1.86 g/cm³
Peak angle of friction	39-51°
Cohesion	0-2.0 kPa

BP-1 Black Point

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Simulant Name: BP-1 Black Point
Availability: May Be Available
Fidelity: Basic
Developed By: Kennedy Space Center
Available From: N/A
Publications: Stoeser, D. B. et al. (2010), Preliminary Geological Findings on the BP-1 Simulant. NASA/TM-2010-216444.

Rahmatian, L. A., and P. T. Metzger (2010), Soil Test Apparatus for Lunar Surfaces. Earth and Space 2010: Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments.

Suescun-Florez, E. et al. (2010), Geotechnical Properties of BP-1 Lunar Regolith Simulant. Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 28, 04014124.

The BP-1 simulant was somewhat of an accident: during field work in Arizona, Jack Schmidt identified a silty deposit derived from the Black Point lava as having very similar physical properties to lunar soils. These deposits are leftovers (basically tailings) from gravel processing. The lava flow is fairly alkaline and becomes more brown and oxidized east of where the quarry for BP-1 is located.

BP-1 is a geotechnical simulant, in that its mineralogy and chemistry were not selected or modified to be similar to any known lunar samples. Because it is derived from basalt, the simulant is more similar to mare soils, but the plagioclase content is fairly high.

45 kg of material were initially brought back to KSC, and BP-1 seems to have been used extensively in robotic mining competitions there. It is unclear what the current status of this simulant is.

Images

Photograph of BP-1: