Microwave Analysis of Lunar Lava Tubes Simulant Materials and Environment

The possibility of exploiting lunar lava tubes for future Moon colonization space missions is strongly debated. Indeed, along with the undoubted bonus of having ideal locations for manned lunar bases sheltered from harsh cosmic radiations and micrometeoroids, critics raise concerns about their stability and practicality. Among matters, an open question is to understand how proper such lunar structures would be for the telecommunications systems based on conventional cellular technologies used on Earth. The present work deals with such issue performing an experimental analysis of regolith simulant materials by means of different microwave techniques, such as waveguide method and reverberation chamber set-up. The analysis of the EM field propagation characteristics aims at representing a starting point in order to design efficiently mobile TLC systems operating on the Moon.