Can a lander stand here?
Adjust inputs and see the math
5 kPa is a Surveyor footpad load. Local shear matches the Surveyor touchdown estimates; general shear predicts about five times more.
How much oxygen per tonne of soil?
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Lab tests on 16 Apollo soils: yield averaged 77% of total FeO. Apollo 17 volcanic glass gave 3.7 wt% oxygen.
Is there ice within reach?
Rocket exhaust blasts loose soil outward at high speed. Past landings show how far; a sintered pad stops it. Here is what one costs at this site.
Where these numbers come from
Blast zones are the brightened areas LRO photographed around past landers: about 300 m² for Surveyors, about 2,400–2,500 m² for Luna and Chang'e-3, and 23,800–29,000 m² for Apollo (Clegg et al. 2014; Clegg-Watkins et al. 2016). Chandrayaan-3's Vikram moved about 2.06 t of soil over 108 m² (Singh et al. 2023).
Uses: LROC blast-zone measurements · density profile · Diviner rock abundance
An oxygen plant is mostly an earth-moving operation. Set how much oxygen you need; see how much ground you have to strip each year.
Where these numbers come from
Yield comes from the oxygen model in the site report, using this site's orbital FeO and TiO₂. Area stripped = soil mass ÷ (density × dig depth).
Uses: Lunar Prospector FeO, TiO₂ · Allen et al. lab yields · density profile
How deep wheels sink, how steep a slope they can climb, and how much harder the soil gets as you dig.
Apollo 15's drill met unexpectedly hard material about 1 m down; pulling the deep core took both astronauts (Apollo 15 Mission Report).
Where these numbers come from
Bekker–Wong wheel model with the Lunar Sourcebook's nominal soil constants (k_c = 1.4 kN/m², k_φ = 820 kN/m³, n = 1, K = 1.8 cm). Friction and cohesion for this site come from the density profile. Defaults are close to the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle.
Uses: Lunar Sourcebook terramechanics · density profile · Lunar Regolith Database
Burying a habitat under regolith shields it from radiation, micrometeoroids and temperature swings. Here is the earthwork, and whether the ground carries the load.
Where these numbers come from
Shielding is given as areal density (mass of cover per area), the standard way to compare shields; pick the dose target from your radiation requirement. Cover is placed at 1.5 g/cm³. Ground pressure is the cover's weight on the dome's footprint, checked with the same bearing model as the site report (general shear, wide footing).
Uses: density profile · bearing-capacity model