Simulating Lunar Regolith with COMSOL for Mission Safety and Space Infrastructure
Current space exploration aims to establish permanent structures on the Moon, Mars, and eventually other planetary bodies. Successful lunar missions depend on understanding lunar regolith, the granular material covering the Moon’s surface, whose behavior is governed by low gravity, vacuum conditions, particle irregularity, electrostatic effects, and extreme thermal environments. This webinar will…
Securing a lasting human presence on celestial bodies like the Moon and Mars hinges on a thorough understanding of lunar regolith, the regenerative material that blankets the lunar surface. This substance, shaped by factors such as low gravity, vacuum conditions, and particle irregularities, exhibits distinct properties that significantly impact mission safety and the development of space infrastructure.
A forthcoming webinar will explore how simulation techniques using COMSOL Multiphysics software can illuminate critical modeling issues associated with this granular material.
The first segment of the seminar will delve into the plume-regolith interaction during spacecraft landings. As underexpanded rocket exhaust plumes collide with the lunar surface, they generate compressible flow structures, erosion, particle ejection, and potential surface damage. These phenomena pose substantial risks to astronauts, equipment, and nearby assets, particularly for missions like Artemis that involve repeated landings and larger spacecraft.
Utilizing COMSOL, researchers can model the interconnected gas-particle response to glean insights into landing-site safety, erosion patterns, ejecta trajectories, and effective mitigation strategies.
The webinar will then transition to the second pivotal topic: induction heating of porous regolith. This process involves converting electromagnetic energy into heat to elevate temperature, induce phase changes, and potentially even melt lunar soil. The presentation will underscore the significance of temperature-dependent porous media properties, latent heat treatment, the evolution of melt fraction, and the distinctions between constant-property and piecewise-property models.
By integrating these studies, the webinar aims to showcase how COMSOL-based workflows can effectively quantify flow fields, particle transport, thermal response, and phase-change behavior. This comprehensive approach will bolster safer operations, spur advancements in regolith processing technologies, and contribute to the development of robust space infrastructure. Registration for this complimentary webinar is currently open.
Written by urgent.news from IEEE Spectrum's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
