DocumentCode
2788412
Title
Measuring water content of Martian soil simulants using planar four-probes
Author
Buehler, M.G. ; Sant, T.A. ; Brizendine, E. ; Keymeulen, D. ; Kuhlman, G.M. ; Schaap, M.G. ; Seshadri, S. ; Anderson, R.C.
Author_Institution
Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA
fYear
2005
fDate
5-12 March 2005
Firstpage
648
Lastpage
659
Abstract
A miniature four-point probe instrument has been developed and applied to the characterization of the moisture content of the Martian soil simulants using fine and coarse silica sand and Moses Lake basalt. The results indicate that the soil resistivity varies over four orders of magnitude as the moisture content varied from 0.1% to over 10%. In addition it was found that forcing too much current through the sand sample resulted in a curious breakdown in the current-voltage characteristic.
Keywords
Mars; moisture; planetary atmospheres; planetary surfaces; soil; space research; Martian soil simulants; current-voltage characteristic; four-point probe instrument; moisture content; soil resistivity; water content measurement; Biosensors; Conductivity; Gamma ray detectors; Hydrogen; Instruments; Mars; Moisture measurement; Neutrons; Soil measurements; Spectroscopy;
fLanguage
English
Publisher
ieee
Conference_Titel
Aerospace Conference, 2005 IEEE
Conference_Location
Big Sky, MT
Print_ISBN
0-7803-8870-4
Type
conf
DOI
10.1109/AERO.2005.1559355
Filename
1559355
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