{"id":16272,"date":"2022-08-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-14T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?p=16272&preview=true&preview_id=16272"},"modified":"2022-08-22T11:34:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T09:34:41","slug":"hit-the-dirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/08\/15\/hit-the-dirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit the dirt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, <\/strong>FLORIDA, USA <\/p>\n\n

Why on Earth would NASA want to buy over 100 tonnes of dirt from a quarry in Arizona? <\/p>\n\n

Well, it turns out that this particular dirt is a great substitute for the material you\u2019d find on the surface of the Moon, called lunar regolith. As such, NASA has collected and stored this dirt in its Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations facility (aka \u2018Big Bin\u2019), a climate-controlled chamber for testing equipment bound for the lunar surface. <\/p>\n\n

Inside Big Bin, engineers are testing the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR), which is being developed to collect samples of lunar regolith. <\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s hoped that this regolith could be mixed with a polymer, made from astronauts\u2019 urine, to create \u2018polymer composite concrete\u2019. This can be made into a strong, carbon-fibre-like material that could be used in a 3D printer to construct lunar habitats. <\/p>\n\n

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VISIT US FOR MORE AMAZING IMAGES:
Pinterest<\/a> \u2022 Instagram<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

IMAGE: AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA, USA Why on Earth would NASA want to buy over 100 tonnes of dirt from a quarry in Arizona? Well, it turns out that this particular dirt is a great substitute for the material you\u2019d find on the surface of the Moon, called lunar regolith. As such, NASA has collected and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7013,"featured_media":16031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"","purple_seq_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"","purple_source_article":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"","purple_source_issue":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"August-2022","purple_external_id":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"August-2022-49da6455-d32f-4e6e-ad15-2028b4554e21","purple_issue_code":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089657||","purple_android_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue381","purple_ios_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue381","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-08-15T15:37:12Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"cb1dbddc-2822-41f4-9859-d88f5f551827","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-08-22T09:34:48Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ayx293CgiQfSYWdiPX1UYJw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"stephanieorgan@googlemail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/stephanieorgangooglemail-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0.jpg",2048,1528,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0-300x224.jpg",300,224,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0-768x573.jpg",768,573,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0-1024x764.jpg",800,597,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0-1536x1146.jpg",1536,1146,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/08\/fefc22e5-fc22-41fb-9d58-df00ce5c5ef0.jpg",2048,1528,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"stephanieorgan@googlemail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/stephanieorgangooglemail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":3,"uagb_excerpt":"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA, USA Why on Earth would NASA want to buy over 100 tonnes of dirt from a quarry in Arizona? Well, it turns out that this particular dirt is a great substitute for the material you\u2019d find on the surface of the Moon, called lunar regolith. As such, NASA has collected and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16272"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16877,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272\/revisions\/16877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}