Geotechnical properties of BP-1 lunar regolith simulant

Understanding the mechanical behavior of lunar regolith is of great importance for future missions to the Moon and other similar extraterrestrial environments. However, due to the scarcity of lunar regolith a number of simulants have been developed to facilitate experimental testing. This paper presents the geotechnical properties of an inexpensive lunar regolith simulant named Black Point 1 (BP-1). An experimental program including particle-size distribution, microscopy observations using scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, density measurements, compressibility, and shear strength was performed. Additionally, BP-1 was compared with regolith recovered from lunar missions and a number of its simulants. The physical properties of BP-1 were found to be similar to other existing simulants and to the natural lunar regolith.