  In contrast to terrestrial environment, the harsh lunar environment
conditions include lower gravity acceleration, ultra-high vacuum and high (low)
temperature in the daytime (night-time). This paper focuses on the effects of
those mentioned features on soil cutting tests, a simplified excavation test,
to reduce the risk of lunar excavation missions. Soil behavior and blade
performance were analyzed under different environmental conditions. The results
show that: (1) the cutting resistance and the energy consumption increase
linearly with the gravity. The bending moment has a bigger increasing rate in
low gravity fields due to a decreasing moment arm; (2) the cutting
resistance,energy consumption and bending moment increase significantly because
of the raised soil strength on the lunar environment, especially in low gravity
fields. Under the lunar environment, the proportions of cutting resistance,
bending moment and energy consumption due to the effect of the van der Waals
forces are significant. Thus, they should be taken into consideration when
planning excavations on the Moon. Therefore, considering that the maximum
frictional force between the excavator and the lunar surface is proportional to
the gravity acceleration, the same excavator that works efficiently on the
Earth may not be able to work properly on the Moon.
