Planetary Simulant Database
Free Resource for Regolith Simulant Information
Mineralogy
Engelschiøn et al. provide a normative mineralogy for the basalt used in the simulant.
| Component | wt.% |
|---|---|
| Basalt | 100% |
Bulk Chemistry
| Oxide | Wt.% |
|---|---|
| SiO2 | 43.7 |
| TiO2 | 2.4 |
| Al2O3 | 12.6 |
| FeO2O3 | 12.0 |
| MnO | 0.2 |
| MgO | 11.9 |
| CaO | 10.8 |
| Na2O | 2.9 |
| K2O | 1.3 |
| P2O5 | 0.6 |
| Total | 98.4 |
Physical Properties
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Median grain size | 11 μm |
| Bulk density | 1.45g/cm3 |
| Grain density | 2.90g/cm3 |
| Cohesion | 0.38kPa |
EAC-1 European Astronaut Center
Simulant Name: EAC-1 European Astronaut Center
Availability: May Be Available
Fidelity: Standard
Developed By: European Space Agency
Available From: N/A
Publications: Engelschiøn, V. S. et al. (2020), EAC-1A: A novel large-volume lunar regolith simulant. Scientific Reports 10, 5473
EAC-1 is sourced from a basantie province in the Siebengebirge Volcanic Field in Germany. It is meant to be used for large-scale testing and technology maturation at the European Astronaut Center, specifically the European Lunar Exploration Laboratory (LUNA). The source material comes in five different size ranges, and a coarser, dust-free version will be used for the main regolith testbed at EAC, with a separate dust chamber filled with EAC-1A.
Engelschiøn et al. state that “where the properties of the dusty simulant have been measured, the figures are labelled with “EAC-1A”” to separate it from the base material which is simply called EAC-1. With a median particle size of 11 μm, EAC-1A is best considered as a dust simulant.
Nieke et al. (2019) provide methods for making thin films of EAC-1.
It isn't clear how much simulant has been produced or what the availability is.
Images
Photographs of the EAC-1 simulant:
