Zoe Landsman, chief scientist of the Exolith Lab at UCF, has developed and expanded the use of simulated extraterrestrial soil for NASA and other private companies. The dirt will advance space exploration by allowing researchers to first test space shelters on the simulated soil.

“We aren’t the only ones doing this, but we are certainly the only university doing this at this scale,” said Landsman. “Like Earth — the moon, Mars and asteroids have various kinds of dirt. If an engineering team wants to test the tire design of a rover…it would need ‘softer’ mock moon dirt.”

• Zoe Landsman