Replenishing NASA’s supply of simulated lunar soil for return to the Moon

William Atkins
Thursday, 04 January 2007 20:30

Science - Space

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When Apollo astronauts brought back real lunar soil from the Moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s it was extremely valuable for scientific studies. Minute amounts were distributed to scientists with a critical research need for only true lunar soil. It also helped Apollo 15, 16, and 17 astronauts to test lunar rovers before using them on the Moon.

Since real lunar soil was too valuable to use, simulated lunar soil was developed when interest in lunar exploration increased. Thus, a simulated lunar soil designated JSC-1 (called such because it was developed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas) was produced beginning in 1993 from the San Francisco volcano field near Flagstaff, Arizona. It consisted of fifty-pound (about 22.7-kilogram) bags of glass-rich volcanic cinder ash of basaltic composition, which mimicked the particle size, chemical composition, and mineral profile of lunar soil in the mare regions (the large, dark plains on the Moon’s surface). In all, 25 tons (22.7 metric tons) were produced. These bags were used for scientific and engineering applications to test lunar conditions for activities such as building structures on the surface of the Moon and removing oxygen and other important materials from beneath the Moon’s surface.

The JSC-1 was found to best simulate the lunar soil after the Apollo astronauts discovered that the Moon’s soil had been repeatedly exposed to solar flares, cosmic rays, and pencil-point sized meteorites for billions of years. During that immense period of time, the soil was continually shattered, melted, vaporized, and re-condensed. Ultimately moon dirt became composed of a combination of rock, mineral, and glass that resulted from exposure to the heat of micrometeoroid impacts at speeds up to 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) per hour.

Unfortunately, the supply of JSC-1 has run out.

To replenish the supply of simulated moon soil, scientists at JSC and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, are currently working to create a replica of JSC-1. Called JSC-1A, it will be manufactured by Orbitec Technologies Corporation (headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin) and be made available in fine, medium, and coarse grain sizes. MSFC scientists are also developing other JSC-1A types that will simulate different Moon locations, such as the mare regions and the polar highland regions, along with loose, glassy, and sharp edged material that covers solid rock—what is called regolith—which coats most of the Moon’s surface.

As NASA perfects the manufacture of JSC-1A in its various forms, it will be produced in greater quantities. And, as NASA develops and carries out its plans for returning astronauts to the Moon—robotic missions are planned between 2007 and 2008; and human missions between 2015 and 2020—enough stimulated lunar soil will be available here on the Earth to practice for missions to our closest neighbor in space.