Physical and mechanical properties of the lunar soil (a review)

We review the data on the physical and mechanical properties of the lunar soil that were acquired in the direct investigations on the lunar surface carried out in the manned and automatic missions and in the laboratory examination of the lunar samples returned to the Earth. In justice to the American manned program Apollo, we show that a large volume of the data on the properties of the lunar soil was also obtained in the Soviet automatic program Lunokhod and with the automatic space stations Luna-16, -20, and -24 that returned the lunar soil samples to the Earth. We consider all of the main physical and mechanical properties of the lunar soil, such as the granulometric composition, density and porosity, cohesion and adhesion, angle of internal friction, shear strength of loose soil, deformation characteristics (the deformation modulus and Poisson ratio), compressibility, and the bearing capacity, and show the change of some properties versus the depth. In most cases, the analytical dependence of the main parameters is presented, which is required in developing reliable engineering models of the lunar soil. The main physical and mechanical properties are listed in the summarizing table, and the currently available models and simulants of the lunar soil are reviewed.