Talk:Lunar regolith simulant

How is Simulant made?
There needs to be a description of how materials for making the various Lunar Regolith Simulants were selected, the precise geological description of the materials and where they are found (such as the anorthosite of the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California at a location approximately 7 miles north east of Mount Wilson, composed of approximately 90% plagioclase with a 10% mafic composition of pyroxene, ilmenite, magnetite, and olivine.), and what the actual manufacturing processes that were used for creating them.

For example, from my own engineering experience, it would read something like:

"To manufacture a lunar regolith simulant here on earth, geologists look for areas that have rock types that are very similar to the samples of a specific regolith brought back from the moon. Some locations where suitable rock types are found are in Minnesota at (give exact location) and in Japan at Mount Fuji. Once it is determined that the mineral chemical composition is reasonably close to the known sample of material brought back from the moon, it is processed using several methods to create the physical characteristics of the actual lunar material. To make a Lunar Regolith Simulant, the raw material may be blended with additional minerals to get a close chemical match to the original lunar sample, then pulverized using standard equipment including ordinary commercially available rock crushing machinery and ball mills used for processing ore from mines. After the raw materials are thoroughly mixed and particle size range is achieved, the crude simulant is dehydrated at 200ºC to remove water that may alter the chemical composition of the minerals at higher temperatures. After dehydration, the raw material is further processed by heating to high heat in an argon atmosphere by dropping a small stream of the pulverized and dehydrated anorthosite through an electric arc between carbon electrodes. The intense heat of the electric arc melts the material and further refines its structure so it forms the glass spherules, fused particles, and mass of fractured grains characteristic of the actual lunar material."

--Linstrum (talk) 01:11, 5 May 2013 (UTC)


 * We need a WP:reliable source that has this information in it. Then we can add to this article.--agr (talk) 21:25, 8 May 2013 (UTC)