regolith tagged posts

A new race to the moon is emerging between the United States and China. Unlike fifty years ago, the goal is no longer just about landing and leaving, but establishing a base that allows for a sustainable presence and extended stays on the surface of our natural satellite. The objective is now to use the moon as a testing ground for technologies that will enable us to travel further, particularly to Mars.

One of these key technologies is in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), which involves using available resources on-site to produce the consumables necessary for human activities: oxygen, water, rocket fuels, or construction materials...

You’re on the fourth human mission to Mars, and you’ve been tasked with establishing the first self-sustaining food crop on a Martian settlement. You’re nervous because you’re using a new type of fungi called beneficial fungi, which you’re told will help enhance the Martian regolith, enabling it to be used for growing crops.

While growing crops on Mars using fungi might be decades away, this hasn’t stopped an international team of scientists from the United States and Brazil from pushing the limits of enhancing crop production through non-traditional methods.

With their findings published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, the researchers discuss how ...

You’re in the lab analyzing Martian regolith samples within your cozy Mars habitat serving on the fifth human mission to Mars. The power within the habitat has been flowing flawlessly thanks to the MARS-MES (Mars Atmospheric Resource & Multimodal Energy System), including the general habitat lighting, science lab, sleeping quarters, exercise equipment, the virtual reality headsets the crew use for rest & relaxation, oxygen and fuel generation, and water. All this from converting the Martian atmosphere into workable electricity.

While this scenario might be decades away, scientists on Earth are working hard to make this concept a reality today...

NASA’s upcoming Artemis II mission is slated to return astronauts to the moon no sooner than April 2026. Astronauts were last on the moon in 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission.

Artemis II will utilize NASA’s Space Launch System, which is an extremely powerful rocket that will enable human space exploration beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The crew of four will travel in an Orion spacecraft, which the agency launched around the moon and successfully returned during the Artemis I mission.

But before Artemis II, NASA will send two missions to scout the surface of the lunar south pole for resources that could sustain human space travel and e...