Micro-Raman and FTIR spectroscopic characterization of the first Turkish lunar regolith simulant

Abstract

In this work, Infrared and Raman spectroscopic investigations on a new Turkish lunar regolith simulant (TBG-1), Chinese (own product), and Japanese simulants are presented for the first time. Our Raman spectroscopic investigation on TBG-1 simulant implies that it is mainly forsteritic olivine. Moreover, the Chinese sample produced by our group in Türkiye showed carbonate peaks at 712 cm⁻¹ and 878 cm⁻¹ in the IR spectra, which were attributed as calcium or sodium carbonates which could be a result of terrestrial weathering. Here, we propose that TBG-1 is close to the composition of lunar highland impact glass in terms of its (Mg, Ca)/Al₂O₃ ratios. Our effort suggested that our recently produced Turkish simulant is similar to the Apollo 11 lunar soil sample in terms of its Al₂O₃ and TiO₂ composition. Some of the samples we collected to simulate lunar regolith also show similarities to the Apollo 14 samples and JSC-1A simulant produced by NASA.