Texas Space Commission awards $4.84M for Interlune regolith center
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A planned Interlune imitation regolith center in Texas will help to more effectively develop lunar landers and other equipment and technologies for space exploration. (File Photo credit: NASA)
Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Seattle-based natural resources firm Interlune will build a Texas facility to develop and test imitation moon dirt near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The imitation moon dirt will support the development and testing of technologies and equipment for use of the moon's surface and an eventual mission to Mars, among other possibilities.
A $4.84 million grant from the Texas Space Commission, combined with internal funding by Interlune, will enable the firm to build a facility to produce imitation moon dirt, which also is called "regolith."
"Lunar regolith is different from dirt here on Earth," Interlune Chief Executive Officer Rob Meyerson said.
"A highest-fidelity testing environment on Earth is of tremendous value to Interlune and the entire lunar exploration community," Meyerson said.
"This support from the Texas Space Commission to develop novilunar regolith simulants will create a massive U.S. advantage in space innovation."
Interlune chief scientist Elizabeth Frank will lead the work at the regolith center, with assistance provided by a Texas-based team.
They will develop and produce different types of imitation lunar regolith in varying quantities to support research and development efforts for lunar technologies and equipment, including landers, rovers and other devices.
The new facility also will create testing environments to better simulate conditions on the moon to enable the harvesting of natural resources from space, such as moon-based helium-3.
The simulants will be available for other companies, government organizations and research institutions
"For the first time in history, harvesting natural resources from the moon is technologically and economically feasible," Meyerson said in a separate online statement.
"Now we embark on a new era of lunar exploration to create an in-space economy that will sustain humanity for millennia."
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