Applicability of Simulants in Developing Lunar Systems and Infrastructure: Geotechnical Measurements of Lunar Highlands Simulant LHS-1

Lunar exploration activities and infrastructure development demand well-constrained information about the geotechnical properties of lunar regolith. Since returned lunar regolith is too scientifically precious to allocate for large-scale geotechnical studies, terrestrial materials must be used to create regolith simulants that reproduce the properties of lunar regolith. Studies that use inappropriate simulants to develop lunar systems are invalid and give misleading results, but as shown here, the lunar highlands simulant produced by Exolith Lab, called LHS-1, maintains high geotechnical fidelity to highlands regolith samples. This study compares the particle size distribution, specific gravity, density, and shear strength of LHS-1 simulant with two different preparation methods: ambient storage and oven dried.