Lunar soil test chamber paves way for future moon construction

by Erica Marchand
Paris, France (SPX) Mar 05, 2026
Before any building rises on the Moon, engineers will need to understand the soil beneath their structures just as they do on Earth. To address this challenge, a recent ESA Discovery project led by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) has produced a design for a specialised calibration chamber that will allow cone penetration instruments to be tested under lunar conditions, providing the geotechnical foundation for future lunar infrastructure.

Cone penetration testing is a standard geotechnical method on Earth, in which a cone shaped penetrometer is pushed into the ground to measure resistance and derive soil strength, stiffness and other key parameters. For lunar applications, however, existing calibration chambers are not designed for extraterrestrial materials or for the harsh vacuum and extreme temperatures at the Moon's surface, making it difficult to obtain trustworthy measurements for design work.

The new Environment Controlled Calibration Chamber for CPT Testing on Extra Terrestrial Soils is tailored specifically to replicate lunar conditions in the laboratory using lunar soil simulants. Its design enables controlled testing of cone penetration tools under relevant thermal and vacuum environments, so that measurements can be directly related to what future missions will encounter on the Moon.

Most of the current knowledge of lunar soil properties comes from Apollo missions, which were limited to equatorial regions. There is almost no in situ data for the lunar poles, yet these areas are expected to host many future missions and infrastructure, making improved understanding of polar regolith and its mechanical behaviour a priority.

The Apollo 15 mission highlighted contradictions between field observations and numerical simulations of lunar soil, underlining the need for better calibrated data. Project lead Dylan Mikesell of NGI notes that robust lunar infrastructure demands a clear grasp of properties such as stiffness, cohesion and the strength of both the regolith and the materials used to build on it, and that accurate instrument calibration is a prerequisite for this understanding.

In the ESA funded activity, NGI designed the chamber together with APVacuum, which contributed to the vacuum and cooling system needed to reproduce the Moon's extreme environment. The system is conceived with flexibility so that other geotechnical tools, sensors and data acquisition systems can be integrated, enabling a broad range of tests beyond cone penetration instruments alone.

ESA Discovery and Preparation Officer Moritz Fontaine describes the chamber design as a key step toward reliable geotechnical data for lunar construction. By creating an environment in which instruments can be tested and calibrated before deployment, the project aims to ensure that future lunar soil investigations yield data engineers can trust when designing landers, habitats and other infrastructure.

Beyond the Moon, the calibration chamber concept could support technology development for other planetary bodies such as Mars by enabling testing of different soil simulants under appropriate conditions. The resulting data may contribute to scientific missions, exploration initiatives and potential commercial activities that depend on accurate geotechnical assessments of extraterrestrial surfaces.

The project emerged from ESA's Open Space Innovation Platform, which invites new ideas for space research and technology. Funded through the Discovery element of ESA's Basic Activities, the collaboration allowed NGI and ESA to explore risks, refine requirements and shape a practical tool for future missions. According to Mikesell, proposing the activity through the platform and working with ESA brought clear benefits in terms of feedback and identification of challenges early in the design process.