SMART‐1 end of life shallow regolith impact simulations |
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| Authors: | M J Burchell M J Cole N K Ramkissoon P J Wozniakiewicz M C Price B Foing |
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| Institution: | 1. Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK;2. Earth Sciences Department, Mineral and Planetary Sciences Division, Natural History Museum, London, UK;3. European Space Agency, European Space Research & Technology Centre, AG Noordwijk, the Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | The SMART‐1 end‐of‐life impact with the lunar surface was simulated with impacts in a two stage light‐gas gun onto inclined basalt targets with a shallow surface layer of sand. This simulated the probable impact site, where a loose regolith will have overlaid a well consolidated basaltic layer of rock. The impact angles used were at 5° and 10° from the horizontal. The impact speed was ~2 km s?1 and the projectiles were 2.03 mm diameter aluminum spheres. The sand depth was between approximately 0.8 and 1.8 times the projectile diameter, implying a loose lunar surface regolith of similar dimensions to the SMART‐1 spacecraft. A crater in the basement rock itself was only observed in the impact at 10° incidence, and where the depth of loose surface material was less than the projectile diameter, in which case the basement rock also contained a small pit‐like crater. In all cases, the projectile ricocheted away from the impact site at a shallow angle. This implies that at the SMART‐1 impact site the crater will have a complicated structure, with exposed basement rock and some excavated rock displaced nearby, and the main spacecraft body itself will not be present at the main crater. |
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