Abstract
This research is focused on the study and comparison of different methods to select the most suitable non-destructive hardness-measuring equipment capable of assessing the hardness of analog planetary rocks in space environments. Proceq’s Equotip 3 equipment proved to be the most suitable alternative, and it was possible to carry out, for the first time, a microgravity experiment inside a Falcon 20 aircraft during parabolic flight. Studying the rebound principle and recognizing that this value is affected by the variation in gravity, it was essential to propose compensation values to correct it, based on previous works regarding impact direction change. This study addresses the preliminary results of ongoing research in the area of rock hardness detection.
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Acknowledgements
Our thanks are due to the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada for providing all the safety requirements during the flight campaign and all the land support. Special thanks are also due to Dariusz Burnat (Proceq), Sonia Girón, and Marcel Poser (Screening Eagle Technologies) for all the support concerning Equotip’s equipment. AP was partially sponsored by Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD). The investigation was funded by a research contract under the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT (CEECIND/00835/2018) to AP and supported within project UIDB/50014/2020. HIC was supported under the framework of the LABCARGA|ISEP re-equipment program (IPP-ISEP|PAD’2007/08) and Centre GeoBioTec|UA (FCT–UID/GEO/04035/2020). In addition, APA received support from CRETUS—AMBISOL|USC (Spain). Finally, we acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments that helped to improve the manuscript.
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Pires, A. et al. (2023). Hardness Tester for Analog Planetary Rocks: A Preliminary Assessment in Microgravity Flight. In: Chaminé, H.I., Fernandes, J.A. (eds) Advances in Geoengineering, Geotechnologies, and Geoenvironment for Earth Systems and Sustainable Georesources Management. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25986-9_35
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