Regolith is the unconsolidated, heterogeneous layer of fragmented mineral and rock material that overlies coherent bedrock on planetary surfaces, including Earth, the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and other solid bodies. As a substance, it comprises varying proportions of rock fragments, mineral grains, dust, ice, and, on some planets, secondary alteration products such as clays or salts. Regolith forms primarily through mechanical and chemical weathering, impact comminution, and volcanic or sedimentary processes, and its physical properties—such as grain size distribution, porosity, cohesion, and volatile content—critically influence surface-atmosphere interactions, geotechnical behavior, resource potential, and the performance of in situ exploration and construction activities.
A team of planetary scientists has developed a promising new way to peer beneath the dusty surface of Mars and other planetary bodies.
Planetary Sciences
May 14, 2025
0
42
What new technologies or methods can be developed for more efficient in-situ planetary subsurface analyses? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team ...
Planetary Sciences
May 7, 2025
0
20
Lately, there's been plenty of progress in 3D printing objects from the lunar regolith. We've reported on several projects that have attempted to do so, with varying degrees of success. However, most of them require some ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 28, 2025
0
62
NASA's Artemis campaign will use human landing systems, provided by SpaceX and Blue Origin, to safely transport crew to and from the surface of the moon, in preparation for future crewed missions to Mars. As the landers touch ...
Space Exploration
Apr 25, 2025
0
56
NASA's Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) successfully demonstrated its ability to remove regolith, or lunar dust and dirt, from its various surfaces on the moon during Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1, which concluded ...
Space Exploration
Mar 31, 2025
0
282
Scientists analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA's Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the red planet to date. The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ...
Astrobiology
Mar 24, 2025
1
1779
A team of geologists at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the Institute of Space Sciences and the Shandong Institute of Geological Sciences, all in China, has found evidence in soil samples collected from the far ...
Sometimes scientists must dig and work and sweat to make scientific discoveries. And sometimes a robot rolls over a rock that turns out to be a revelation.
Astrobiology
Mar 5, 2025
0
291
On December 3, 2018, NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) successfully rendezvoused with the near-earth asteroid (NEA) 101955 Bennu. Over the next two ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 3, 2025
0
825
Mars, the next frontier in space exploration, still poses many questions for scientists. The planet was once more hospitable, characterized by a warm and wet climate with liquid oceans. But today Mars is cold and dry, with ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 26, 2025
0
64
