Cohesion and heat transfer in asteroid regolith composed of irregular, rough, porous particles

Abstract

We reviewed the conventional, notionally physics-based models of dry/humid adhesion and effective thermal conductivity of granular media and found them not applicable to rough, irregular, polydisperse particles that make up real regolith on planetary bodies, moons and asteroids. We present new theories of the co-/adhesion and effective thermal conductivity of granular media consisting of rough, irregular grains, the grains being mechanical polycrystalline or amorphous aggregates of constituent pure silicate minerals.