Prediction of soil collapse by lunar surface operations in reduced gravity environment

As a basic study for future activities on Moon, influences of the gravity on soil collapse problems such as the bearing capacity and the earth pressure were investigated from the standpoint of plasticity theory. The dimensional analysis was firstly conducted to find the governing parameters for each problem. Then, the slip line method was performed by changing these parameters parametrically. As the results of the calculations, the soil failure mechanisms under the different gravitational conditions were predicted and the influences of the gravity were discussed.