Extended space exploration is limited by the weight of the spacecraft departing Earth. A key resource for human spaceflight missions is water, however, transporting sufficient water for long-term missions is not viable. Thus, Mars missions will have to rely on Martian water resources such as water bound to minerals in the regolith. Understanding how much water is present in the regolith and how it can be released is thus critical to the success of such missions which is poorly understood. The key to water uptake and release from the regolith is its porosity. This research focuses on developing methods for measuring the porosity in the regolith using small angle neutron scattering which provides a non-destructive method that can detect and quantify pores from 1 nm to 20,000 nm. Using a basalt test sample, akin to Martian regolith, mined from quarries in Manor and Werribee in Victoria, Australia, we describe a method for collecting and analysing small angle neutron scattering patterns of powdered minerals. We further describe a method to calculate the volume of pores that can be filled with water as a fraction of the total pore volume.

Extended space exploration is limited by the weight of the spacecraft departing Earth. A key resource for human spaceflight missions is water, however, transporting sufficient water for long-term missions is not viable. Thus, Mars missions will have to rely on Martian water resources such as water bound to minerals in the regolith. Understanding how much water is present in the regolith and how it can be released is thus critical to the success of such missions which is poorly understood. The key to water uptake and release from the regolith is its porosity. This research focuses on developing methods for measuring the porosity in the regolith using small angle neutron scattering which provides a non-destructive method that can detect and quantify pores from 1 nm to 20,000 nm. Using a basalt test sample, akin to Martian regolith, mined from quarries in Manor and Werribee in Victoria, Australia, we describe a method for collecting and analysing small angle neutron scattering patterns of powdered minerals. We further describe a method to calculate the volume of pores that can be filled with water as a fraction of the total pore volume.