Planetary Simulant Database
Free Resource for Regolith Simulant Information
Mineralogy
| Mineral | Wt % |
|---|---|
| Olivine (Fo91.6</sub) | 60 |
| Orthopyroxene (En69.3Wo1.2) | 20 |
| Clinopyroxene (En40.5Wo44.8) | 5 |
| Plagioclase (Albite, Ab95.2) | 10 |
| Pyrrhotine | 3 |
| Iron filings | 2 |
Bulk Chemistry
| Oxide | Wt.% |
|---|---|
| SiO2 | 42.7 |
| TiO2 | 0.44 |
| Al2O3 | 3.40 |
| Cr2O3 | 0.05 |
| FeO/Fe2O3 | 15.8 |
| MnO | 0.16 |
| MgO | 34.3 |
| CaO | 1.47 |
| Na2O | 1.06 |
| K2O | 0.04 |
| P2O5 | 0.05 | Total | 99.4 |
Physical Properties
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Bulk density | 1.62 g/cm3 |
| Specific gravity | 3.37 g/cm3 |
| Cohesion | 10 kPa |
| Angle of friction | 46.8° |
IRS-1 Itokawa Regolith Simulant
Simulant Name: IRS-1 Itokawa Regolith Simulant
Availability: Available
Fidelity: Enhanced
Developed By: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Available From: Xiaojia Zeng ([email protected]) or Xiongyao Li ([email protected])
Publications: Zeng, X. et al. (2019), The Itokawa regolith simulant IRS-1 as an S-type asteroid surface analogue. Icarus, accepted
IRS-1 was developed to support China’s upcoming asteroid missions. It is a general purpose simulant designed to match the composition and physical properties of the S-type asteroid Itokawa, based on analysis of returned samples.
Images
Photograph of the inputs and the final simulant, reproduced from Fig. 1 in Zeng et al., accepted.
