[SpaceProgram] Introduction & Leightweight probes

[Máté Ravasz]

We actually have discussed it in great lengths in our team whether use
Orbitec's JSC-1, or to develop our own lunar soil model for our rover
testing bed. Our geologists say the same as Bradley: it's not as sharp as
the real thing. But if we wanted to use some really sharp dusty material,
that always forms clumps and is not as fine JSC-1. So yeah, this stuff is
the closest you can get apparently.

On 16 April 2012 19:01, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Is its chemical composition accurate?
>
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 6:59 AM, Bradley Grzesiak <listrophy at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Speaking as a former ORBITEC employee and lunar mining engineer, I can
> say a
> > few things about the regolith simulant.
> >
> > First, it's *really* fine. Like affect-your-lungs fine. I recommend a
> simple
> > $2 paper mask, which should suffice. Second, it's not quite as
> > microscopically jagged as the real stuff, but they do a pretty good job.
> > Basically, you're not really going to get any agglutinates (fused grains)
> > that you would from real regolith.
> >
> > But it's the closest (by far) you'll get anywhere. And no, they don't
> just
> > dig it up and ship it out. There's quite a bit of post-processing to get
> the
> > correct grain-size distribution.
> >
> > :brad
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 11:49 AM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> moon regolith, epic, thanks for the link
> >>
> >> that could be useful for many projects. we have some areas here in
> >> hawaii that are commonly used as moon and mars simulation areas.
> >> Mostly old lava flows.
> >>
> >> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 6:27 AM, Luke Weston <
> reindeerflotilla at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> >> What would be interesting: Grow bacteria on nothing but moon soil.
> >> >> Taake
> >> >> some soil, add water, atmosphere and bacteria. Will they thrive? ->
> If
> >> >> so,
> >> >> phosphorus etc. is in the moon soil.
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > We already know a great deal about the geology and mineralogy of the
> >> > moon, and the chemical composition of the lunar regolith.
> >> >
> >> > There's no wheel there that needs to be reinvented, and no fundamental
> >> > new discovery that needs to be made.
> >> >
> >> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil
> >> >
> >> > You can also commercially buy standard JSC-1A lunar regolith simulant
> >> > from Orbitec, which is interesting:
> >> >
> >> > http://www.orbitec.com/store/simulant.html
> >> >
> >> > They even have Mars regolith simulant too :)
> >> >
> >> > There is some existing research and literature in this area,
> >> > indicating that certain types of life, such as cyanobacteria, will
> >> > grow on lunar regolith (or simulant) when water (and other factors
> >> > such as light, if appropriate) is added along with an appropriate
> >> > artificial atmosphere.
> >> >
> >> > For example:
> >> >
> >> > http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1673.pdf
> >> >
> >> > If you got some regolith simulant, autoclaved it or something to make
> >> > sure it's sterile (along with all your other equipment and vessel, got
> >> > some sort of benign sample of appropriate bacteria or cyanobacteria
> >> > from an appropriate biology supplier (ATCC or whatever the go-to
> >> > people are for that sort of thing these days) and supplied an
> >> > appropriate gaseous atmosphere from a gas cylinder, and added some
> >> > distilled water, and supplied some light on the vessel, I suppose it
> >> > wouldn't be too difficult to reproduce such an experiment.
> >> > Interesting.
> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Bradley Grzesiak
> > co-founder, bendyworks llc
> > http://bendyworks.com/
> >
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> >
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