I’m building a model kit of the Opportunity Rover and wanted to display it in the most authentic way possible. I was able to find the company that produces regolith simulant for NASA. It turns out they sell it online. Its mineralogy and grain size are nearly identical to the real thing.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1msqgrf
12 Comments
Looks amazing! If I may ask, who makes the kit?
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Great model.
Just don’t breathe the dust, if it’s really that well simulated. Respect the warning label
>Its mineralogy and grain size are nearly identical to the real thing.
So you’re telling me the regolith isn’t at scale with the model? 😛
Jokes aside, nice work, it looks great!
“Real simulant” sounds like “Genuine Imitation”.
“Real simulant” (which is “simulant” even a word?) is one of the weirdest phrases I’ve read on the internet in a while
That’s really cool! I worked with some lunar highlands simulant from that company and some from the CO school of mines for my most recent couple of summers at JSC, these simulants get used for all sorts of testing. In my case it was testing wear and degradation of electrical contacts being exposed to regolith. There’s a lot of cool geoscience that goes into making the simulants as representative as possible!
Real simulant? As opposed to simulated simulant?
If you haven’t already, or for anyone interested in acquiring some of their own, you might want to read the SDS for the simulant, it can be risky to handle directly. https://spaceresourcetech.com/products/mgs-1-mars-global-simulant?srsltid=AfmBOoqA-4RVT2FeBMNmyQK-ws9ybKsjXugdP7bHNnyRB3X7Qd2EUlKT
A simulant, eh? I’m gonna need to know how it feels about flipping over tortoises* that are stuck on their back.
^(*You know what a turtle is? Same thing.)
“regolith simulant” Wow, talk about a niche product! Just Mars, or do they offer other regoliths like the Moon and Mercury? How about Europa or Io?!? Do they have package or bulk sale deals? So many questions.
Real… Simulant 🤣🤣🤣
That’s quite the contradiction.