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Do you have $ 20 plus postage, a hole in your pocket? If this is the case, you might be interested in an offer from astrophysicists from the University of Central Florida: a Martian soil for sale for research purposes, priced at $ 20 per kilogram. So, it's not really earth extracted from the red planet, but rather earth created using the first scientific and standardized method to create a simulating material that will act in the same way as reality.
"We create artificial or simulated soils that mimic those found on Mars, the moon and asteroids," said Kevin Cannon, a postdoctoral researcher who helped develop the material, at Digital Trends. "They are composed of different minerals naturally present on Earth, but mixed in unique proportions that do not look much like terrestrial soils."
The Formula One floor of the University of Central Florida is based on the chemical signatures of materials collected on Mars by the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012. UCF physics professor Dan Britt, who also worked on this project, built two calibration targets that were part of the Curiosity rover.
But why does a reputable university earn a few dollars more by selling land? In the end, it's less about making money than about something much more important: standardization. Currently, a number of institutions, organizations and startups are studying topics such as the best way to grow food on Mars. However, they do not use standardized simulants, which makes the comparison of experimental results difficult. By creating its more accurate spatial ground simulator, UCF researchers hope to advance research in a more practical and useful way.
"We work primarily with scientists and planetary scientists at universities, NASA centers and private space companies," continued Cannon. "There are all kinds of applications, including robotic testing, resource extraction such as water in planetary materials and learning about growing plants in future missions to Mars or the moon. "
It turns out that doing Martian soil is also not a niche industry. To date, the university has received requests from more than 50 different groups, for a total of more than half a ton of simulant. "We expect to have the capacity to produce between several hundred kilograms and several tons a year," said Cannon.
An article describing the work is available for reading online.
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