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Preparing something as complex and expensive as a human mission on Mars takes decades. Part of this preparation is to make sure that the astronauts you send will survive once they arrive. It would be impossible to send enough food to last a colony on the surface of Mars. The team will have to be able to produce its own food. Enter the University of Central Florida or UCF.
The UCF has prepared an experimental Martian soil sold at a price of 20 dollars per kilogram. The intention of this false Mars soil is to allow scientists and researchers to test their theories about things like agriculture before astronauts reach the planet. The false ground is called a simulant and the UCF can also produce a simulated soil of asteroids or moon.
False Marian soil is based on a formula derived from chemical signatures from the true Martian soil collected by the Curiosity rover. The challenge for scientists who use simulants for their experiments is that the simulants are not standardized. UCF physics professor Dan Britt said the lack of standardization means that the results of the experiments can not be compared with each other.
By using the UCF simulators, the experiments can be compared. Britt can mix soils in different ways to mimic the soil of other planets or asteroids. Researchers conducting experiments requiring soils can order them ready from UCF or make them themselves using the formula published by Britt and UCF.
Kevin Cannon is another participant in the project. He says that most of the ingredients are readily available to create simulating soils based on other planets, right here on Earth. He admits that some necessary minerals are very difficult to obtain. All UCF simulants meet NASA safety standards. UCF has 30 standing orders, including one from the Kennedy Space Center for half a ton of simulant.
SOURCE: UCF
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