Description du projet
Une nouvelle technique pour comprendre les terrains extraterrestres
Le comportement des surfaces planétaires est essentiel pour l’exploration spatiale. Cependant, les techniques actuelles permettant de comprendre la mécanique des sols sur Terre sont insuffisantes dans les environnements à faible gravité, ce qui complique la préparation et l’exploitation des missions spatiales. Dans cette optique, le projet GRAVITE, financé par le CER, développera un laboratoire unique à gravité variable, capable de modifier le niveau de gravité de chaque expérience jusqu’à un millier de fois inférieur à la gravité terrestre, reproduisant ainsi de petites surfaces corporelles. Cela permettra d’explorer minutieusement le comportement des matériaux granulaires dans des conditions de gravité réduite. Les données expérimentales de GRAVITE seront précieuses pour affiner les modèles existants, pour faciliter la conception des futurs instruments spatiaux et pour garantir l’interprétation précise des données acquises par les missions spatiales.
Objectif
As the number of space missions involving surface interactions increases, so does the need to understand the behaviour of planetary surfaces. The surface properties also are crucial for human exploration, and play a key role in the evolution of planetary bodies. In terrestrial geophysics and planetary exploration, two techniques are widely used for in-situ determination of soil mechanical properties: seismic sounding, and penetration testing. However, the GRAVITE PI hypothesizes that these techniques are not directly applicable for space exploration due to implicit assumptions that become invalid in low-gravity environments, and that this has resulted in erroneous interpretations of data from multiple space missions.
Whereas others use limited experimental data points, numerical simulations or untested extrapolations, GRAVITE will build a unique high-performance, low and variable gravity laboratory to extensively explore, for the first time, the complex interactions between particle size, friction and cohesion in the response of granular materials to both small and large deformations, under vacuum, and in reduced-gravity conditions.
The GRAVITE facility, capable of reaching gravity levels three orders of magnitude less than Earth’s gravity (in order to simulate small body surfaces), and of finely adjusting the gravity level of each individual experiment, will bridge an existing gap in facilities and provide exceptional experimental data covering a wide range of gravity conditions. The GRAVITE data from two custom experiments will be used to test the limits of existing theories, and validate new models accounting for previously unexplored regimes. As such, GRAVITE will provide the planetary science and exploration communities with much needed models that can be used to predict and interpret the behaviour of extra-terrestrial surface materials. The results will have direct applications to current and future space missions that interact with planetary surfaces.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyspace exploration
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringgeotechnics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetary geology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencescondensed matter physicssoft matter physics
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeophysics
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régime de financement
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitution d’accueil
31055 Toulouse
France