Abstract
The rational treatment of frictional interaction between lunar soil and mechanical system is one of technical issues in lunar operations. This reason is that the evaluation method for frictional interaction in lunar surface environment, for example, heavily over-consolidated soil, soft grand, low gravity and high vacuum condition. In this study, first, we develop a test apparatus to perform the rotational shear test of granular media. Then, we combine a magnetic field device with the friction test apparatus in order to investigate the effect of gravity on frictional interaction. By using the developed test apparatus, we can perform the test under a pseudo low gravity condition. As a result, we can investigate variations of frictional torque with elapsed time between the granular media and various solid surfaces under the pseudo low gravity condition in which the gravity is adjusted at 1.0, 0.95 and 0.9 G.
