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NASA Needs Fake Moon Dust

Posted by Zonk on from the like-to-see-the-requisition-form-for-that dept.

crisco writes "NASA's renewed interest in lunar exploration and 'in situ resource utilization,' or ISRU, is driving the need for tons of carefully faked lunar dust and sand for testing purposes: 'We don't have enough real moondust to go around,' says Larry Taylor, director of Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. To run all the tests, "we need to make a well-qualified lunar simulant.' And not just a few bags will do. 'We need tons of it, mainly for working on technologies for diggers and wheels and machinery on the surface,' adds David S. McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at the Johnson Space Center (JSC)."

3 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Of course! by Diordna · · Score: 0, Redundant

    We all know the truth: the fake moon dust from the LAST moon landing went stale, and they need to rebuild the set so they can shoot more "real moon footage." NASA, so naive, they don't know we're onto them.

    1. Re:Of course! by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Actually, it's because the "permanent moonbase" will be a lot larger than the Apollo site so they need a MUCH larger stage.

  2. Re:Fake moon landing site by forkazoo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Just take it form the Fake moon landing site.


    First off - it has been decades since they used any of it, so it probably all got thrown out back, and blown away, etc.

    Second off, it was only designed to *look* like moon dust. And, on 1960's TV, at that. And, they had to "lose" the high quality slow scan tapes...