Preparation and characterization of Martian soil simulant NEU Mars-1

To develop Martian soil simulant, basalts of the Chahar volcanic group in Wulanchabu, Inner Mongolia, China were selected as the simulant initial materials, which were ground and sorted to a predetermined particle size ratio, and small amounts of magnetite and hematite were added. The main phases of NEU Mars-1 simulant were plagioclase, augite and olivine. The glass transition and crystallization temperatures of NEU Mars-1 were 547.8 and 795.7 degrees C, respectively. The complex dielectric constant, magnetic conductivity (0.99-1.045), and dielectric loss tangent angles (0.0025-0.030) of NEU Mars-1 were all stable in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. Mossbauer spectroscopy results showed that the mass ratio of Fe2+ to Fe3+ in the simulant was 77.6:22.4. The NEU Mars-1 Martian soil simulant demonstrated particle size ratio, chemical composition, phase composition, thermal stability, and dielectric property similar to Martian soil, and can be used as the substitute material to extract oxygen and metals with in-situ resource utilization technologies.