UAE researchers create ‘moon dust’ for lunar exploration training

Space agencies often use deserts as test beds for their lunar missions, but the UAE’s abundant fine sands didn’t quite cut it.

Researchers at the New York University Abu Dhabi Space Exploration Laboratory have cooked up artificial “moon dust” that mimics the lunar surface using local rocks rich in anorthosite.

The so-called Emirates Lunar Simulant can be used to test how well vehicles and instruments might cope when they land on the Moon.

It’s a small, but crucial, step toward the UAE’s ambition of landing an Emirati astronaut on the Moon within the next decade.