Launching and landing pads (LLP) on a lunar surface are necessary for vertical takeoff and landing as propulsive launching/landing on the bare lunar regolith surface will produce regolith erosion resulting in extremely damaging high-speed ejecta and cratering. Thus, the main aim of this research is to numerically and experimentally explore different construction methods for LLP on the Moon capable of withstanding the harsh lunar environmental conditions and the rocket blast. LHS-1 lunar simulant representing the regolith found in highland region of the Moon was used in this study. Three different construction methods were explored: biopolymer (Xanthan Gum) regolith improvement, cold isostatic pressing (CIP) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) methods. Effects of extreme cycling lunar temperatures on the uniaxial compression performance of different LLP construction methods were studied in the range -250°C to 125°C. The extensive experimental results showed that compressive strength in all lunar construction composites tends to decrease with the thermal cycling. Furthermore, it has been observed that the SPS specimens showed better resistance to the influence of the environmental conditions than CIP and biopolymer-amended specimens. In order to further evaluate effects of design, materials, and construction variables on the characteristics of LLPs when subjected to mechanical and environmental loads, multi-physical numerical simulations were carried out using MATLAB. Numerical simulations also showed that the SPS LLP system had better rocket blast resistance than other two LLP systems.
