Scientists at the University of Central Florida are selling their own simulated Martian and asteroid soil for experiments. When we finally get to Mars, we’re going to need to be able to grow food and build shelters and to figure out how, we need Mars dirt. The UCF team created their dirt using the chemical signature of the soils on Mars collected by NASA’s Curiosity rove. The base recipe can be mixed in different ways to mimic soils from Mars, asteroids, the Moon and other planets. Just as Earth has various soils – sands, clay, topsoils, etc – other worlds will have carbon-rich soils, clay-rich soils and salt-rich soils.

Source: Forbes September 29, 2018 14:15 UTC