Thermal Testing and Simulation of Lunar and Martian ISRU-Based Materials

Upon the eventual return of humans to the lunar surface, leveraging local resources to construct landing pads and other infrastructure will be an essential component to minimize cost and risk. The inability to accurately model landing and launch scenarios to predict damage to lunar structures poses risks to astronaut and equipment safety. The following experiment is an investigation of using simulation software and temperature sensors to model lunar and Martian regolith simulant-based concrete exposed to thermal loads. The foundations of this experiment are built upon the fundamental axioms of structural health monitoring, simulation software capabilities and limitations, and the properties of likely candidates for materials used for lunar and Martian in-situ construction. Parallel testing will be performed with simulation software, and physical equipment with material cube samples. The goal of this testing is to collect comparable temperature data to determine the accuracy of the simulation and determine the resulting temperature and strain response within the material. This thesis seeks to address the lack of characterization of lunar and Martian regolith simulant-based concrete in their expected use conditions. This is an online presentation for faculty, staff, students, and the community on April 15, 2022 at 1:00 PM via Zoom (https://minnstate.zoom.us/j/94675433218?pwd=R2ljeE52Uk5Nc2dMbW1RREd2M2NUdz09)