Investigation on Martian regolith and preliminary employments in life support systems

Future long-duration space missions will need the r egeneration of vital resources and the production of food using, as much as possible, avai lable in situ resources, to reduce the resupply mass. Nowadays Martian regoliths are considered convenient candidates for many applications, such as shield material from galactic cosmic rays, source of nutrients for plants such as calcium and phosphorus, oxygen reserve through soil trapped oxides, and more. Since no Martian soil has been recovered yet, most researchers perform their experiments on JSC Mars-1A Martian Regolith Simulant, developed by NASA and distributed by ORBITEC. This work is focused on a physical-chemical characterization of such Martian simulant by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) for confirmation and extension of literature data. Base d on the results obtained by studying and testing the raw material, the possibility of a chem ical modification has been investigated with the intention of enhancing its absorption capabilit y towards air and water contaminants. In order to investigate the treatment efficiency, prel iminary tests on air and water purification have been carried out. Moreover, a first assessment on the radiation protection properties has been performed. The study has been perfomed in collaboration between Thales Alenia Space Italia and the Politecnico of Torino.