Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
study of lunar soil from terrestrial models
(canary islands, spain)
J.a. Rodríguez-losada & s. hernández-Fernández
Department of Soil Science and Geology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
J. Martínez-Frías
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC/INTA), Madrid, Spain
l.e. hernández
Regional Ministry of Works, Government of the Canary Islands, Spain
R. lunar hernández
Departamento de Cristalografía y Mineralogía, Facultad de Geología, Universidad Complutense,
Madrid, Spain
aBsTRacT: The Moon has a surface constituted mainly of basaltic materials. They are mostly vacu-
olar-like basalts that are also abundant in soils of volcanic origin on earth. The geotechnical features of
these rocks from the canary islands are supported by the basic characteristics deduced by nasa for this
type of basalts. This paper deals with the geotechnical parameters of the lunar basalts taking into account
the knowledge we have of the basalts from the canary islands used as terrestrial models as well as their
suitability as building materials in future lunar bases. it is concluded that the lunar basalt, because of their
abundance, ease of management and structural strength, is the best material for the construction of roads,
tracks and even blocks with regolith for shielding of dwellings and facilities required on a lunar base.
1
inTRoDUcTion
construction so that no other use of materials from
natural resources of the Moon, as the transportation
from earth of the necessary materials would signifi-
cantly increase the cost of installing the lunar base.
one of the key objectives for the development
of a lunar base is the knowledge of the mechanical
properties of lunar materials (Blacic 1985, Desai
et al., 1992) and methods on the treatment of the
lunar basaltic materials (Pletka 1993). The Moon
has a very rich surface basaltic materials, especially
in the lunar maria because they come from volcanic
extrusions crack occurred at the surface and leave
the magma through the cracks. This type of basalt
vacuolar appearance due to strong gas release that
occurred during their training, are abundant on
the Moon and also on earth, in soils of volcanic
origin. The material used for the construction of
these roads or highways must meet certain basic
requirements: must be abundant, easy to handle
and more suitable for work in terms of structural
strength (to withstand the forces properly to be
submitted lifetime). as physical and chemical
experiments on a lunar basalt source are unable to
carry out, this project will address the study of a
vacuolar basalt from earth (particularly from the
canary islands) with characteristics similar to
The exploration of a larger surface of the moon
corresponding to the immediate environment to the
lunar base will require that the people of the same
have the means to facilitate their mobility. To achieve
that displacement of one area to another of the lunar
surface are the most appropriate not sufficient to
have the best off-road vehicles adapted to lunar soil,
but that means building roads or tracks for the move-
ment of these vehicles can properly and higher speeds
that would allow the dusty lunar soil. Furthermore,
these tracks remedied, in part, the serious problem
posed by lunar dust for transport vehicles and equip-
ment and would create major maintenance costs.
Moreover, space transportation vehicles have a
number of reactors that will cause the dusty lunar
soil is lifted from the surface in large quantities, with
the danger that entails, both for inhabitants of the
lunar base as for equipment and facilities of the
same. To limit these effects, we must also build tracks
that allow the landing and takeoff of these space
vehicles (must be far enough from the lunar base to
avoid the effects of dust rising from the ground).
it is therefore necessary to build landing tracks and
roads or access roads to the lunar base. and for their
