COMSOL Webinar to Detail Lunar Regolith Simulation for Mission Safety and Infrastructure

Understanding Lunar Regolith

Future space exploration aims to establish permanent structures on the Moon and other planetary bodies. Successful lunar missions require a thorough understanding of lunar regolith, the granular material on the Moon's surface. Its behavior is influenced by low gravity, vacuum conditions, particle irregularity, electrostatic effects, and extreme thermal environments.

Plume-Regolith Interaction During Landings

The webinar will address plume-regolith interaction, which occurs when rocket exhaust plumes impinge on the lunar surface during spacecraft landings. This interaction can cause compressible flow structures, erosion, particle ejection, and surface damage. High-speed dust generated can reduce visibility and pose risks to astronauts, equipment, and nearby assets, particularly for missions like Artemis involving repeated landings.

Induction Heating for Regolith Processing

Another topic covered is the induction heating of porous regolith. This process converts electromagnetic energy into heat to raise the temperature, drive phase changes, and potentially melt lunar soil. The discussion will include temperature-dependent porous media properties, latent heat treatment, and melt fraction evolution, comparing constant-property and piecewise-property models.

COMSOL's Role in Space Infrastructure

The webinar will demonstrate how COMSOL Multiphysics software can quantify flow fields, particle transport, thermal response, and phase-change behavior. These simulations support the development of safer operations, regolith processing technologies, and future space infrastructure by providing tools to predict, control, and utilize granular lunar material.