Speaker
Description
The Vulcan Facility was created by the NHM in London as a contract deliverable for ESA [1][2][3]. It is now located at ESA’s UK site and houses a collection of Lunar, Martian, and asteroid analogue samples (or ‘simulants’) and benchtop analytical equipment for fundamental properties characterisation. Feedstock materials are also available for design and production of new simulants.
The primary aim is to conduct simulants-focused research and technical activities, and apply geoscience expertise to support and de-risk exploration technology development preparing for planetary surface exploration (including sample return missions). European simulant priorities were determined following a user survey and European simulants workshop in 2022.
The Vulcan Facility also provides support and future planning for sample curation activities within ESA and Europe [4]. This includes defining standards and procedures in preparation for long-term storage, handling, and analyses of returned samples to Europe.
The Vulcan Facility led the selection of a Lunar Highland simulant for the Luna Facility dust chamber based at the EAC [5]. This included rigorous characterisation of several anorthositic simulants to inform decision-making [6].
Recent studies include: the creation of lunar south pole simulants designed for use in rocket plume-surface interaction experiments, to understand the regolith’s response to landing spacecraft on the Moon, and could be used to investigate potential damage to infrastructure [7]; and the creation of MARSIE (Mars Advanced Regolith Simulant for Iron Extraction) to develop and test methods for extracting resources from the local Martian regolith [8].
Future research includes: development of more high-fidelity, landing site-specific simulants for the Moon and Mars to support future mission development; design and creation of a Phobos simulant to support the MMX mission; investigation of how shocked minerals affect ISRU processes and traversability of lunar regolith; and additive manufacturing and radiation shielding tests with high-fidelity lunar simulants.
References: [1] Smith C. L. et al. (2017) LPSC Abstract #1218 [2] Smith C. L. et al. (2018) LPSC Abstract #1623 [3] Martin D. J. P. and Duvet L. (2019) LPSC Abstract #2663 [4] Hutzler A. et al. (2023) Hayabusa Symposium Abstract [5] Schlutz, J. et al. (2024) European Lunar Symposium (ELS) Abstract. [6] Zemeny A. et al. (2024) Front. Space Technol. 5:1510635. [7] Martin M. et al. (2025) LPSC Abstract #2519. [8] Wilkinson F. et al. (2025) LPSC Abstract #2449.
Additional Information: Funding administered via ESA’s Exploration, Preparation, Research, and Technology (ExPeRT) Programme (reference E3CX-014), as part of the Terrae Novae European Exploration Envelope Programme (E3P).
