Planetary Simulant Database
Free Resource for Regolith Simulant Information
Mineralogy
| Mineral | Wt.% |
|---|---|
| Olivine | 33.7 |
| Pyroxene | 31.6 |
| Magnetite | 14.3 |
| Antigorite | 9.2 |
| Iron metal | 4.6 |
| Pyrite | 4.1 |
| Sub-bituminous coal | 2.0 |
| Nickel metal | 0.5 |
Bulk Chemistry
| Oxide | Wt.% |
|---|---|
| SiO2 | 19.3 |
| TiO2 | 0.4 |
| Al2O3 | 1.2 |
| Cr2O3 | 0.1 |
| FeOT | 42.9 |
| MgO | 30.1 |
| CaO | 0.8 |
| Na2O | 3.3 |
| K2O | 0.1 |
| P2O5 | 0.4 |
| SO3 | 0.9 |
| Cl | 0.0 |
| Total | 99.8 |
Physical Properties
No data available
UCF/DSI CR Carbonaceous Chondrite Simulant
Simulant Name: UCF/DSI CR Carbonaceous Chondrite Simulant
Availability: May Be Available
Fidelity: Standard
Developed By: UCF & Deep Space Industries
Available From: N/A
Spec Sheet: CR Spec Sheet
Publications: Britt et al. 2019, Simulated asteroid materials based on carbonaceous chondrite mineralogies
The UCF/DSI CR Carbonaceous Chondrite Simulant is a general purpose asteroid regolith simulant based on the CR group of carbonaceous chondrites. Because there is significant variety in the mineralogy of CR’s, the simulant is based on an average of modal mineralogies.
To produce the simulant, individual mineral components are sourced and prepared, then mixed together with water and sodium metasilicate that acts as a binder. The resulting mixture is dried to remove the water, then mechanically ground in a rock crusher to achieve the desired particle size distribution.
The simulant was produced as part of a NASA SBIR grant to create realistic asteroid simulants.
Images
Photograph of the CR simulant:
