Jeremiah N. Mpagazehe

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Kenneth W. Street, Jr. and Irebert R. Delgado

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

C. Fred Higgs III

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Erosive Wear Characterization of 

Materials for Lunar Construction

NASA/TM—2012-217706

August 2012

1243291
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Jeremiah N. Mpagazehe

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Kenneth W. Street, Jr. and Irebert R. Delgado

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

C. Fred Higgs III

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Erosive Wear Characterization of 

Materials for Lunar Construction

NASA/TM—2012-217706

August 2012

1243291

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Glenn Research Center

Cleveland, Ohio 44135

Prepared for the

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for their support of the first 

author through the Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) fellowship. We are also grateful to Rick Mondry of the NASA 

Glenn Research Center for his substantial contributions in constructing the experimental apparatus. 

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NASA/TM—2012-217706 1

Erosive Wear Characterization of 

Materials for Lunar Construction

Jeremiah N. Mpagazehe

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

Kenneth W. Street, Jr. and Irebert R. Delgado

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Glenn Research Center

Cleveland, Ohio 44135

C. Fred Higgs III

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

Introduction

Earth’s moon is covered in a fine layer of loosely-packed, 

unconsolidated material called the “lunar regolith”. The finest 

layers, termed “lunar dust”, created a number of complications 

during the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 1970s 

(Ref. 1). A critical problem caused by the sharp and jagged 

lunar dust particles was wear (Ref. 2). As the exhaust plumes 

from the retrorockets of the Apollo lunar module (LM) 

interacted with the lunar surface, lunar dust particles were 

entrained into the gas stream and accelerated to high velocities. 

It became apparent that these fast-moving lunar dust particles 

can cause erosive wear damage to lunar hardware based on data 

obtained from the 1969 Apollo 12 mission. Material coupons 

from the Surveyor III lunar probe, which was located 

approximately 155 m away from the Apollo 12 LM landing, 

were returned to earth and extensive analysis, such as scanning 

electron microscopy (SEM), was performed by Immer et al. 

(Ref. 3). Immer et al. concluded that surface damage such as 

pitting and scouring, which are primary erosive wear 

mechanisms, were indeed caused by the lunar dust impingement 

during the Apollo 12 landing. As such, the objective of the 

current work is to provide a quantitative analysis of the damage 

that lunar dust erosive wear can cause to the candidate lunar 

construction materials 1045 steel, 6061 aluminum, and acrylic. 

In this paper, the design of the test rig is presented along with 

the parameters used in the study. The change in surface 

roughness is reported both qualitatively and quantitatively for 

the aluminum specimen.

Experimental Methods

Erosive wear tests were conducted in the Erosion 

Laboratory at the NASA Glenn Research Center. A Topas

Solid Aerosol Generator (Topas GmbH) was used to create an 

aerosolized stream of the lunar dust simulant JSC-1AF. 

The aerosolized dust particles were then accelerated toward 

the test specimen by a secondary fast-moving air stream. The 

test apparatus is displayed in Figure 1. The duration of each 

test was 4 minutes. The particles were accelerated toward the 

surface at a 90° impingement angle (normal). A dual-disc 

calibration tool was used to determine that the impact velocity 

of the particles was approximately 105 m/s. A Zygo 7300 

series interferometer (Zygo Corporation) was used to quantify 

the changes in surface roughness.

Results and Discussion

As an example of the results collected from this study, a 

qualitative comparison of the effect of erosive wear on the 

aluminum surface is presented as well as quantitative data on 

the changes in surface roughness. Though the 105 m/s impact 

velocity in the current study is moderate compared to the 

numerical predictions of Lane et al. who estimated particle 

velocities in excess of 1000 m/s (Ref. 4), the results in the 

current study represent a less-severe scenario than what may 

be experienced on the lunar surface. Albeit, even for the 

moderate impact velocities and short test durations of the 

current study, the qualitative changes in the optical properties 

of the surface and the quantitative changes in the surface 

roughness are significant. For a qualitative comparison, an 

aluminum specimen before and after testing (in similar 

lighting conditions) is displayed in Figure 2.

In Figure 2, it can be seen that the surface of the specimen is 

qualitatively more reflective before testing than after testing. 

As shown in Figure 2(b), there are two distinct areas on the 

eroded specimen. The “inner region” was positioned directly 

under the nozzle in the experiment, while the “outer region” 

was not.

The results from optical profilometry performed on a fresh 

aluminum specimen and the eroded specimen, as seen in 

Figure 2(a) and (b), respectively, are presented in Figure 3 and 

Figure 4.
NASA/TM—2012-217706 2

Figure 1.—Image of erosive wear test apparatus

(a) (b)

Figure 2.—Image of aluminum test specimen 

(a) fresh specimen (b) eroded specimen

It can be seen that the surface of the fresh specimen in 

Figure 3(a) is relatively smooth compared to the surface of the 

eroded specimen in Figure 3(b) and (c).

Figure 4 displays a quantitative comparison for the average 

roughness (Ra) of the fresh specimen from Figure 2(a), and 

the outer and inner regions of the eroded specimen in 

Figure 2(b). Interestingly, the outer region, which was not 

subjected to a direct blast from the nozzle, is about six times 

rougher than the fresh specimen. This implies that efforts to 

prevent lunar dust erosive damage on the Moon will need to 

be robust as even areas outside of the apparent impact area can 

still sustain considerable damage if line-of-sight is not the only 

manner for the dust movement. The inner region sustained the 

most damage and is about 18 times rougher than the fresh 

specimen.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3.—Surface profilometry at the same magnification of a 

0.35 mm x 0.26 mm area for: (a) fresh specimen, (b) eroded 

outer region, (c) eroded inner region.

Figure 4.—Quantitative changes in surface 

roughness due to JSC-1AF erosive wear.

Outer region

IIInnnnnneeer

rr rrreeegggi

iiooonnn

Test 

specimen

Aerosolized 

feed of 

lunar dust 

simulant

Lunar dust 

simulant 

exit nozzle

TOPAS

Solid 

Aerosol 

Generator
NASA/TM—2012-217706 3

Conclusions

In this work erosive wear tests were conducted using the 

JSC-1AF lunar simulant. Qualitatively, the surface’s optical 

properties changed as the eroded surface did not reflect light 

as well as the fresh surface. Optical profilometry revealed that 

damage due to erosive wear caused an approximate 18-fold 

increase in the roughness of the surface. Areas of the test 

specimen not in the apparent blast of the JSC-1AF particles 

also experienced a significant increase in surface roughness if 

they are close enough to the source that some exhaust 

atmosphere is still driving them. This suggests that efforts to 

mitigate erosive wear damage to surfaces on the Moon may 

require consideration of the areas outside of the apparent 

impact region. The results from this study indicate the need for 

a better understanding of lunar dust erosive wear on critical 

surfaces of lunar hardware. The changes in surface roughness 

presented in this work were significant even for moderate 

impact velocities and short test durations. The high-velocity 

impacts in lunar conditions and long-term exposure to lunar 

dust erosive wear may significantly exacerbate the damage. It 

is believed that the effect of lunar temperatures on material 

properties may also affect the erosive wear damage and more 

research is needed in this area. Understanding erosive wear 

damage on the Moon is critically important for optical 

surfaces, such as mirrors and lenses, and thermal surfaces, 

such as radiators, as their performance can be markedly 

affected by damage due to erosive wear.

References

1. J.R. Gaier, “The Effects of Lunar Dust on EVA Systems 

During the Apollo Missions,” NASA, Cleveland, OH, 

2005.

2. R.L. Kobrick, K.G. Budinski, J.K.W. Street, and D.M. 

Klaus, “Three-Body Abrasion Testing Using Lunar Dust 

Simulants to Evaluate Surface System Materials,” NASA, 

Cleveland, OH, 2010.

3. C. Immer, P.T. Metzger, P.E. Hintze, A. Nick, and R. 

Horan, “Apollo 12 Lunar Module exhaust plume 

impingement on Lunar Surveyor III,” Icarus, Vol. 211, 

pp. 1089-1102, 2011.

4. J.E. Lane, P.T. Metzger, C.D. Immer, and X. Li, 

“Lagrangian Trajectory Modeling of Lunar Dust 

Particles,” in Earth & Space, Long Beach, CA, 2008.
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Erosive Wear Characterization of Materials for Lunar Construction 

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Mpagazehe, Jeremiah, N.; Street, Kenneth, W., Jr.; Delgado, Irebert, R.; Higgs, C., Fred, III 

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14. ABSTRACT

NASA’s Apollo missions revealed that exhaust from the retrorockets of landing spacecraft may act to significantly accelerate lunar dust on 

the surface of the Moon. A recent study by Immer et al. (C. Immer, P.T. Metzger, P.E. Hintze, A. Nick, and R. Horan, “Apollo 12 Lunar 

Module exhaust plume impingement on Lunar Surveyor III,” Icarus, Vol. 211, pp. 1089-1102, 2011) investigated coupons returned to Earth 

from the Surveyor III lunar probe which were subjected to lunar dust impingement by the Apollo 12 Lunar Module landing. Their study 

revealed that even with indirect impingement, the spacecraft sustained erosive damage from the fast-moving lunar dust particles. In this 

work, results are presented from a series of erosive wear experiments performed on 6061 Aluminum using the JSC-1AF lunar dust simulant. 

Optical profilometry was used to investigate the surface after the erosion process. It was found that even short durations of lunar dust 

simulant impacting at low velocities produced substantial changes in the surface.

15. SUBJECT TERMS

Wear; Erosion; Lunar soil 

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