NASA uses fake Moon dirt to prepare for Artemis

Fun fact from the files of “there’s a job for that”: there are Multiple companiesThey specialize in creating fake Moon dirt. Technically, it’s called lunar regolith to help differentiate it from “soil,” which implies the presence of organic material, or from “dirt,” which, for this story, I learned Literally, that is all. “anything that makes you dirty.” Whatever you call it, it is Nothing like our friendly terrestrial soils: it’s sharp, dusty, and jagged; it’s full of glassy globs from meteorite impacts; and its chemical composition has been altered by constant bombardment from solar wind. Moon regolith is, in short: strange and alien stuff. 

Why would several companies try to replicate it? You might have seen Artemis 1 if you are interested in lunar missions. Finally, the liftoff has occurred!They all have to test their hardware on Earth. They need to know how their landers and rovers and spacesuits are going to stand up to terrain that’s basically covered with dusty shards of glass. Carting barrels of actual regolith back from the Moon isn’t exactly practical, so a cottage industry has popped up to process terrestrial rocks and minerals into a family of lunar regolith simulants. They’re not perfect — no fancy lab process is likely to replicate millions of years’ worth of solar wind — but modern simulants are good enough for space agencies and private startups to set their lunar equipment up for success before it ever touches down on the Moon.

Fun fact number two, one of the simulant corporations Exolith Lab, lets you just… order their fake Moon dirt on the internet. So we did*! Exolith also spoke to us about the manufacturing process of their simulant. We also tried our own demonstration involving a baking pan full of simulant and a model rocket — to see how That Check out the video below to see how it turned out. 

*Obligatory “don’t try this at home” disclaimer: because lunar regolith (real or simulated) is so dusty, it can actually be pretty hazardous if you inhale it. Exolith guided us through safety precautions before we started to dig in. If you are inspired to create your own regolith simulant collections, make sure you learn about safe handling!