Planetary Simulant Database
Free Resource for Regolith Simulant Information
Mineralogy
| Mineral | Amount % |
|---|---|
| Olivne | ? |
| Pyroxene | ? |
| Plagioclase | ? |
| Glass | >30 |
| Other | ? |
Bulk Chemistry
| Oxide | Wt.% |
|---|---|
| SiO2 | 47.70 |
| TiO2 | 2.00 |
| Al2O3 | 16.20 |
| MnO | 0.15 |
| Fe2O3 | 10.75 |
| MgO | 5.04 |
| CaO | 8.21 |
| Na2O | 4.92 |
| K2O | 2.29 |
| P2O5 | 0.58 |
| BaO | 0.06 |
| SrO | 0.09 |
| LOI | 0.92 |
| Total | 98.9 |
Physical Properties
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Median grain size | 260 μm |
| Bulk density | 1.36 g/cm3 |
| Specific gravity | 2.72 |
| Internal friction angle | 47.6° |
| Cohesion | 0.86 kPa |
| Compression index | 0.086 |
TJ-1/2 Tongji University
Simulant Name: TJ-1/2 Tongji University
Availability: May Be Available
Fidelity: Standard
Developed By: Tongji University, China
Available From: N/A
Publications: Jiang, M., L. Li, and Y. Sun (2012). Properties of TJ-1 Lunar Soil Simulant. Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 25, 463-469.
TJ-1 and -2 are general purpose simulants for lunar low-Ti mare soils, produced fairly recently by Tongji University in China. TJ-1 was designed to contain roughly the same minerals as mare materials, but more importantly to have a range of geotechnical parameters within the ranges of Apollo soil measurements. The simulant was derived from red volcanic ashes from Jilin Province, China.
To produce TJ-1, the raw materials were dried, crushed, and sieved to 7 different size fractions that were then iteratively mixed to achieve the correct geotechnical properties. TJ-2 was a variant spiked with silicon carbide to raise the specific gravity to 2.90.
In an earlier publication in 2010 it was stated that ~20 kg of TJ-1 was available to researchers for the cost of shipping, but it is not clear how much (if any) remains, or if more was produced.
Images
Micrographs of the red ashes from which TJ-1/2 was derived, from Jiang et al. 2012:
