Regolith behavior under asteroid-level gravity conditions: low-velocity impact experiments

TL;DR

This study investigates how planetary regolith responds to low-velocity impacts under asteroid-like gravity conditions, revealing significant differences in ejecta production, impactor rebound, and cohesion compared to higher gravity environments.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data on regolith impact behavior under asteroid-level gravity, highlighting the influence of gravity on ejecta, rebound, and cohesion in planetary regolith.

Findings

Ejecta production increases with impact velocity and decreases in microgravity.

Impactor rebound occurs at microgravity levels for impacts above 10 cm/s.

Cohesion between regolith grains is higher than in terrestrial soils.

Abstract

The dusty regolith covering the surfaces of asteroids and planetary satellites differs in size, shape, and composition from terrestrial soil particles and is subject to very different environmental conditions. Experimental studies of the response of planetary regolith in the relevant environmental conditions are thus necessary to facilitate future Solar System exploration activities. We combined the results and provided new data analysis elements for a series of impact experiments into simulated planetary regolith in low-gravity conditions using two experimental setups: the Physics of Regolith Impacts in Microgravity Experiment (PRIME) and the COLLisions Into Dust Experiment (COLLIDE). Results of these experimental campaigns found that there is a significant change in the regolith behavior with the gravity environment. In a 10-2g environment (Lunar g levels), only embedding of the impactor was observed and ejecta production was produced for most impacts at > 20 cm/s. Once at microgravity levels (<10-4g), the lowest impact energies also produced impactor rebound. In these microgravity conditions, ejecta started to be produced for impacts at > 10 cm/s. The measured ejecta speeds were lower than the ones measured at reduced-gravity levels, but the ejected masses were higher. The mean ejecta velocity shows a power-law dependence on the impact energy with an index of ~0.7. When projectile rebound occurred, we observed that its coefficients of restitution on the bed of regolith simulant decrease by a factor of 10 with increasing impact speeds from ~5 cm/s up to 100 cm/s. We could also observe an increased cohesion between the JSC-1 grains compared to the quartz sand targets.