Regolith Simulants Analysis (Regolith Simulants)

The regolith simulant project consists of simulant experts from many NASA Centers and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL), with particular experience and scientific backgrounds relevant to simulant design, production, and use.  Together, the team serves as the Agency's Simulant Advisory Committee (SAC).  The tasks for the project team include 1) providing simulant consultations and recommendations for Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD)-funded projects.  In addition, numerous non-STMD projects have reached out to the committee for advice and are supported as resources permit; 2) provide simulants in small amounts (less than or equal to 10kg) to STMD projects, and work to get future larger simulant needs defined and funded; 3) publish a NASA Technical Memorandum update of the NASA Regolith Simulant User's Guide, soon to include martian simulants as well as lunar simulants; 4) participate in the NASA Simulant Advisory Committee bi-weekly meetings; 5) collaborate with JHU-APL's Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC), including participation in LSIC's Lunar Simulants Working Group; 6) publish, with the help of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), and maintain the Simulant Database for public use; and 6) familiarization and interaction with the HLS-UG-001 Human Lander Systems User's Guide, Human Lander Systems Lunar Thermal Analysis Guidebook (LTAG), NASA-STD-1008 Dust Mitigation Standard, SLS -SPEC-159 Cross Program Design Specification for Natural Environments (DSNE), Lunar Thermal Environments Task Team (LTETT), and NASA/TP-20220018746 Lunar Dust Mitigation: A Guide and Reference. Previous efforts of the team included 1) publishing an update to the Lunar Simulant User's Guide, 2) vetting previous public simulant database documents for compilation and eventual release, 3) performing a survey of Game Changing Development Program-funded and LSIC-related projects that utilized simulants as to their needs, which included the types of simulants as well as their quantities; 4) working in collaboration with commercial simulant providers to achieve improvements in commercially available simulants to better meet NASA's needs, specifically in the creation of the highest fidelity lunar highlands simulant produced to date; 5) characterizing available simulants and comparing them in terms of how well they replicate specific aspects of regolith utilizing Figures of Merit methodology; and 6) distributing small amounts (less than or equal to 10kg) to simulant users and assisting in the identification of sources of larger quantities of regolith simulants.

​NASA benefits from: 1) being able to confidently conduct technology development tests and experiments with quality regolith simulants that have the geologic and physical attributes needed for the specific technology and tests or experiments; 2) having a NASA Simulant Advisory Committee (SAC) composed of planetary regolith/simulant subject matter experts for consultation on NASA-funded technology development projects and commercial simulant development; 3) having an 'easy-to-read' regolith simulant user's guide for use by technology project engineers and scientists to better understand the attributes and qualities of regolith simulants; and 4) having the expertise within the SAC to discuss, with technology developers, the limitations of simulants that could be relevant for testing and operations.  Additionally, the SAC is networked such that any new simulant development is brought to their attention, and they are able to share the new simulant types with other members of the Committee.  The team is highly focused on providing the simulant best suited for the technology under development.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.