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The Adhesive Response of Regolith to Low-Energy Disturbances in Microgravity

Stephanie Jarmak
Stephanie Jarmak
, 
Joshua Colwell
Joshua Colwell
, 
Adrienne Dove
Adrienne Dove
 and 
Julie Brisset
Julie Brisset
   | Jan 29, 2021
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Article Category: Research Note
Published Online: Jan 29, 2021
Page range: 1 - 12
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gsr-2021-0001
Keywords
© 2021 Stephanie Jarmak et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1

Still frames of a 10-g quartz impactor (left) contacting quartz sand at an impact speed of 23 cm/s and (right) rebounding with observable mass transfer.
Still frames of a 10-g quartz impactor (left) contacting quartz sand at an impact speed of 23 cm/s and (right) rebounding with observable mass transfer.

Figure 2

Still frame of 10-g quartz sand coated impactor (left) contacting Orgueil at an impact speed of 52 cm/s and (right) rebounding with observable mass transfer.
Still frame of 10-g quartz sand coated impactor (left) contacting Orgueil at an impact speed of 52 cm/s and (right) rebounding with observable mass transfer.

Figure 3

Example of a PRIME-3 experiment that resulted in the mass transfer of quartz sand onto a 31-g steel marble.
Example of a PRIME-3 experiment that resulted in the mass transfer of quartz sand onto a 31-g steel marble.

Figure 4

1-g granular impact experiment spring pendulum apparatus.
1-g granular impact experiment spring pendulum apparatus.

Figure 5

Open-air drop tower experiment apparatus.
Open-air drop tower experiment apparatus.

Figure 6

Still frame of 31-g steel projectile with observable mass transfer from quartz sand. Contrast enhanced for mass transfer visibility.
Still frame of 31-g steel projectile with observable mass transfer from quartz sand. Contrast enhanced for mass transfer visibility.

Figure 7

Vacuum drop tower apparatus. The chamber is detached from a vacuum pump shortly before an experiment is performed, and a Swagelok quick-disconnect fitting maintains the vacuum inside the tube for the duration of the experiment.
Vacuum drop tower apparatus. The chamber is detached from a vacuum pump shortly before an experiment is performed, and a Swagelok quick-disconnect fitting maintains the vacuum inside the tube for the duration of the experiment.

Figure 8

From left to right: Example of no mass transfer (monolayer), low mass transfer, medium mass transfer, and high mass transfer.
From left to right: Example of no mass transfer (monolayer), low mass transfer, medium mass transfer, and high mass transfer.

Figure 9

Observations of mass transfer from regolith onto cm-size marbles in various flight experiments.
Observations of mass transfer from regolith onto cm-size marbles in various flight experiments.

Figure 10

Mass transfer outcome vs. projectile impact velocity for flight experiments.
Mass transfer outcome vs. projectile impact velocity for flight experiments.

Figure 11

Mass transfer outcome vs. rebound acceleration for flight experiments.
Mass transfer outcome vs. rebound acceleration for flight experiments.

Figure 12

Observations of mass transfer from regolith onto cm-size marble in an open-air, free-fall environment.
Observations of mass transfer from regolith onto cm-size marble in an open-air, free-fall environment.

Figure 13

Observations of mass transfer from regolith onto cm-size marble in a free-fall, vacuum environment.
Observations of mass transfer from regolith onto cm-size marble in a free-fall, vacuum environment.

Figure 14

Mass transfer outcome vs. rebound acceleration for our open-air and vacuum drop tower experiments.
Mass transfer outcome vs. rebound acceleration for our open-air and vacuum drop tower experiments.

Figure 15

Mass transfer outcome vs. rebound acceleration for flight and drop tower data.
Mass transfer outcome vs. rebound acceleration for flight and drop tower data.

PRIME-4 experiment parameters.

Projectile Regolith
Diameter (cm) Mass Material Grain type Grain size (μm)
1.9 10 Quartz JSC-1 125–250250–500
Sand Coated Quartz Orgueil 125–250

PRIME-3 experiment parameters.

Projectile Regolith
Diameter (cm) Mass (g) Material Grain type Grain size (μm)
1.9 10 Quartz JSC-1 125–250
31 Steel Quartz Sand 75–250

Experiment parameters yielding mass transfer for the flight experiments.

Regolith (μm) Marble mass Impact velocity (cm/s) Rebound acceleration (m/s2) Mass transfer
Orgueil (125–250) 10 16.2 0.16 Low
JSC (125–250) 10 27.8 0.31 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 10 34.8 0.96 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 10 51.8 5.40 Low
Quartz (75–250) 10 23.2 0.004 Medium
JSC (125–250) 31 29.6 0.07 Medium
JSC (125–250) 31 14.9 0.08 Medium
JSC (125–250) 31 4.1 0.09 Medium
JSC (125–250) 10 4.1 0.09 Medium
Quartz (75–250) 10 37.1 0.03 High
Quartz (75–250) 10 38.5 0.03 High
Orgueil (125–250) 10 31.8 0.11 High
Orgueil (125–250) 10 26.6 0.16 High
Quartz (75–250) 31 14.1 0.38 High

Experiment parameters for experiments yielding mass transfer (MTO = “low”) for open-air drop tower experiments.

Regolith (μm) Marble mass Rebound acceleration (m/s2)
Quartz (75–250) 31 3.7
Quartz (75–250) 31 4.5
JSC (250–500) 31 4.9
JSC (250–500) 31 5.1
Quartz (75–250) 31 5.5
JSC (250–500) 31 5.5
JSC (250–500) 31 5.6
Quartz (75–250) 31 5.8
Quartz (75–250) 31 5.8
Orgueil (125–250) 31 6.5
JSC (250–500) 31 6.6
JSC (250–500) 31 6.8
JSC (250–500) 31 7.4
JSC (125–250) 31 7.6
JSC (125–250) 31 7.7
Quartz (75–250) 31 7.8

COLLIDE-3 experiment parameters.

Projectile Regolith
Diameter (cm) Mass Material Grain type Grain size (μm)
1.9 10 Quartz Quartz Sand <250

Vacuum drop tower experiment parameters.

Projectile Regolith
Diameter (cm) Mass (g) Material Grain type Grain size (μm)
1.9 10 Quartz Quartz Sand 75–250250–500
31 Steel JSC-1 125–250
2.54 20
67 250–500
3.81 226 Orgueil 125–250

Open-air drop tower experiment parameters.

Projectile Regolith
Diameter (cm) Mass (g) Material Grain type Grain size (μm)
1.9 10 Quartz Quartz SandJSC-1 75–250125–250
31 Steel 250–500
Orgueil 125–250

Tabletop experiment parameters.

Spring pendulum parameters Regolith parameters
Mass (g) Spring constant (N/m) Spring length (m) Grain type Grain size (μm)
31 3.5 0.27 Quartz Sand 75–250200–500
JSC-1 <7575–100125–250

Experiment parameters yielding mass transfer for our vacuum drop tower experiments.

Regolith (μm) Marble mass Rebound acceleration (m/s2) MTO
JSC (250–500) 67 0.89 Medium
JSC (250–500) 67 3.8 Medium
Orgueil (125–250) 226 0.84 Low
JSC (125–250) 226 1.2 Low
JSC (125–250) 226 1.3 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 226 1.3 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 226 1.3 Low
Quartz (250–500) 67 1.5 Low
JSC (125–250) 226 1.7 Low
JSC (125–250) 226 1.8 Low
JSC (125–250) 226 2.2 Low
Quartz (250–500) 67 2.7 Low
Quartz (250–500) 67 2.9 Low
Quartz (75–250) 31 3.0 Low
Quartz (75–250) 31 3.1 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 67 3.2 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 67 3.2 Low
Quartz (75–250) 31 3.2 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 67 3.5 Low
JSC (250–500) 67 3.8 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 67 3.9 Low
Quartz (75–250) 10 4.3 Low
JSC (250–500) 31 4.3 Low
Quartz (75–250) 31 4.8 Low
Quartz (75–250) 31 5.1 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 31 5.2 Low
JSC (125–250) 31 5.3 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 31 5.4 Low
Quartz (75–250) 31 5.5 Low
Quartz (75–250) 10 5.6 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 31 5.9 Low
Quartz (75–250) 10 6.2 Low
Orgueil (125–250) 31 7.0 Low
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