General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Stone mixture in a paper package.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

11.0 cm

Width

7.8 cm

Height

10.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Space Technology

Category

Miscellaneous

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Bendix

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Texas

Period

ca. 1967-1970

Canada

As part of the Apollo Program, the Bendix Corporation, under contract with NASA, developed simulated lunar soils for their “Lunar Module Soil Mechanics Study.” These simulated lunar soils were used in the development of soil force laws, giving the relations between the Lunar Module’s footpad motions and the resulting forces acting on the footpads during the Lunar Module touchdown. This simulated lunar soil sample, belonged to Canadian engineer Owen Maynard, the Chief of Systems Engineering in the Apollo Program Office. Maynard was involved in all aspects in the development of the Lunar Module, and was given this simulated soil sample during or shortly after the conclusion of Bendix’s “Lunar Module Soil Mechanics Study.”

Function

To simulate certain features of lunar soil for testing of Lunar Module footpads for the Apollo Program.

Technical

Composed of a mixture of red crushed volcanic scoria and air-floated clay, this is a sample of Bendix’s “LSM” simulated lunar soil. It was a basic test soil used in the “Lunar Module Soil Mechanics Study,” and was designed to mimic certain features of lunar soil, such as grain size, friction angle, and density, based on photographs taken by Surveyor I, NASA’s first uncrewed lunar soft-lander, in 1966.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

On the paper label: "SIMULATED LUNAR SOIL/ Name: LSM (by Bendix)/ Composition: Mixture of red-crushed/ volcanic scoria (broadly graded)/ and air-floated clay./ Physical Properties:/ Mean grain size - 0.07 +/- mm./ Friction angle - 25 [degrees] to 40 [degrees]/ Density - 67.5 to 91.0 pcf/ From TH4/ Carrier x4757" (label in supp info)

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Package covered with beige paper tape with an off-white paper label with black typed text.

Decoration

N/A