Piece of Moon in UAE? Researchers create simulated lunar dust to support exploration
Researchers in a lab at a university in Abu Dhabi have been working on something revolutionary – a Moon on Earth through a piece of the Moon.
Dubai: The Emirates Lunar Simulant, a scientifically-developed material designed to imitate the properties of natural lunar regolith, was developed by New York University Abu Dhabi's (NYUAD) Space Exploration Laboratory (SpExLab), which is headed by Dr Dimitra Atri.
It will serve as a testing ground for scientists to test instruments for the forthcoming Emirates Lunar Mission and the UAE astronaut program set to land on the Moon. Mass transport of large amounts of Moon soil is not feasible and therefore soil simulants will be important for future lunar exploration.
The Emirates Lunar Simulant which the researchers prepared is made of anorthosite-rich rocks from the UAE, and is especially ideal as its mineral and chemical composition is close to moon samples.
Led by researcher Vigneshwaran Krishnamoorthi and a team of undergraduate students, the NYUAD team will use the simulant for testing instruments intended for important mission operations including landings, surface exploration, construction and resource extraction.
Using local geological resources to advance planetary science, this project enhances the UAE contribution to space exploration and at the same time it generates new opportunities in well-prepared for the upcoming lunar missions worldwide, said Atri, principal investigator, NYU Abu Dhabi's Space Exploration Laboratory.
It will be used to test rover performance, training astronauts, and validating lunar equipment and optimising missions, thereby reducing risk for future lunar exploration," said the Emirates Lunar Simulant.
The rock abundant in anorthosite are significant from Earth evolutionary perspective as they are often widespread assumed to be fragments of ancient crust. Rock samples were taken from the Semail Ophiolite Complex (SOC)—a region in the United Arab Emirates with a geological formation that contains a portion of Earth’s lithosphere.
In this research paper, "Development of Lunar Simulants from Analog Sites in the United Arab Emirates", they studied a rock known as "anorthosite", which occurs in Earth's crust and on the Moon. The researchers explained how they found and processed anorthosite layers in the SOC to make a high-purity lunar dust simulant.
The team also used the simulant to attempt to grow food, demonstrating its robustness for use in lunar agriculture in addition to testing instruments. A potential step toward establishing permanent human presence in space, this experiment demonstrates it's viability for lunar agriculture.
Emirates Lunar Mission
At the same time, the UAE is in the process of contributing its skills to the Artemis programme. Alongside its growing partnership with NASA and international partners, the country will provide an airlock module for the Lunar Gateway, a future orbital space station around the Moon.
The big airlock will serve as an airtight room where astronauts can leave and enter the station when doing a spacewalk or transferring cargo.
The UAE has traded this contribution for an Emirati astronaut seat on the next moon landing over the next decade. The UAE would be only the tenth country ever to launch a astronaut into a lunar orbit — this mission would be historic.
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