A proposal of lunar long duration method (Fabrication of lunar environment simulator and experimental validation)

Abstract

A lunar long duration method which utilizes a characteristic of a very low thermal conductivity of lunar regolith has been proposed. The principle of this method is to put heater in desired depth of the regolith and heat up the regolith layer during lunar daytime. Because of the very low thermal conductivity of regolith, stored heat in regolith propagates gradually and raises the surface temperature at cold lunar night. By this method, a lunar lander will be kept warm passively during cold lunar night. In this paper, a temporospatially small-scale experimental apparatus which simulate lunar surface environment was fabricated and thermal cycling condition and heater setting position was calculated by comparing lunar environment, and thermophysical properties of the lunar regolith and regolith simulant used in this work. The feasibility of a passive thermal control method with no electrical power during lunar night time was evaluated.

Keywords

• lunar mission
• lunar regolith
• thermal conductivity
• thermal control