Planetary Simulant Database
Free Resource for Regolith Simulant Information
Mineralogy
| Material | Abundance (%) |
|---|---|
| Basalt | 93 |
| Magnetite | 5 |
| Hematite | 2 |
Bulk Chemistry
| Oxide | Wt.% |
|---|---|
| SiO2 | 49.28 |
| TiO2 | 1.78 |
| Al2O3 | 13.64 |
| Fe2O3 | 16.00 |
| MnO | 0.14 |
| MgO | 6.35 |
| CaO | 7.56 |
| Na2O | 2.92 |
| K2O | 1.02 |
| P2O5 | 0.3 |
| LOI | 0.48 |
| Total | 99.47 |
Physical Properties
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Mean grain size | 250 μm |
| Median grain size | 300 μm |
| Specific gravity | 2.88 |
| Bulk density | 1.45 g/cm3 |
| Internal friction angle | 40.6° |
| Cohesion | 0.33 kPa |
JMSS-1 Jining Mars Soil Simulant
Simulant Name: JMSS-1 Jining Mars Soil Simulant
Availability: May Be Available
Fidelity: Standard
Developed By: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Available From: N/A
Publications: Zeng, X. et al. (2015), JMSS-1: a new Martian soil simulant. Earth, Planets and Space, 67:72.
JMSS-1 is a general use martian regolith simulant recently developed at the Lunar and Planetary Science Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was developed to make up for the lack of a Chinese Mars simulant, and will be used to support China’s upcoming Mars missions.
The JMSS-1 simulant was created by mechanically crushing Jining basalt, a Miocene aged unit located in the North China craton. Mineralogically the basalt consists of plagioclase, pyroxene, olivine, and minor ilmenite, magnetite and hematite. In order to achieve more accurate iron contents, the basalt was spiked with naturally sourced magnetite and hematite.
The publication by Zeng et al. does not say how much simulant has been produced, or whether it is available to researchers in China.
Images
Backscatter SEM image of the Jining basalt used to make JMSS-1, from Zeng et al. 2015:
