Off Planet Research News
What have we been working on lately? Check out below or visit our LinkedIn page for the most up-to-date activities.
Regolith-based magnesium oxychloride composites doped by graphene: Novel high-performance building materials for lunar constructions
In our study, we demonstrated a novel approach in the field of lunar construction materials. The prepared composite materials are based on magnesium oxychloride cement (MOC)…
Speaker lineup for the 2021 Lunar Development Conference
The 2021 Lunar Development Conference will bring together our community of lunar science and lunar settlement advocates to discuss all aspects of the Moon in an all-virtual setting using the latest technologies and methods. We will feature speakers from the realms of lunar science, space policy, advocacy, business, and academia who will present their research and ideas for the human future of Luna. All sessions will be streamed live and recorded on Youtube.
Space company makes a soft landing at the Port of Everett
You wouldn’t buy a set of snow tires that hasn’t been tested on snow and ice or a dune-buggy that hasn’t tackled a sand dune.
It’s the same for engineers who design lunar landers and martian probes and want to know that their equipment can handle the terrain before launching a multi-million-dollar device into space.
New Port of Everett tenant creates off-planet conditions
The Port of Everett’s new Maritime, Exploration and Innovation Complex welcomes its first tenant, a company that simulates soils from the moon and other planets, to test their effect on space-based gear.
Credit: portofeverett.com
PORT OF EVERETT WELCOMES OFF PLANET RESEARCH, FIRST TENANT TO PORT'S NEW MARITIME, EXPLORATION AND INNOVATION COMPLEX
A new lease signed with Off Planet Research, LLC seeds the Port of Everett’s future maritime, exploration and innovation-focused Center of Excellence.
Space company makes a soft landing at the Port of Everett
The company creates soil and ice samples that simulate the moon and other extraterrestrial soils, allowing researchers to test their contraptions here on earth. Its lunar simulants are modeled after samples and research gathered by the various Apollo missions.
Credit: ThurstonTalk.com
Thurston County’s Off Planet Research Receives National Science Foundation Grant
Thanks to a newly received National Science Foundation grant, OPR can expand their services. “This grant is to expand our icy regolith simulants and make the process portable and streamlined to provide this service on-site for our clients who are unable to travel to our labs.”
Off Planet Research, LLC Awarded Competitive Grant from the National Science Foundation
Off Planet Research has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $225,000 to conduct research and development (R&D) for providing cost-effective artificial mixtures of the ice and soil found on the Moon and other worlds to accelerate the development of space resource extraction.
2019 Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) Presentation
Accurate surface observations of lunar polar ices and regoliths are crucial for scientific and commercial objectives.
In April 2019, the engineering model of the Near Infrared Volatile Spectrometer Subsystem (NIRVSS) was tested at Off Planet Research. The tests utilized OPRFLCROSS lunar icy regolith simulants formed by cryogenic vapor deposition of the nine ice components observed in the LCROSS impact plume...
LPSC 2019 Presentation on the unique physical characteristics of simulated lunar ice
Mission engineers and scientists must have thorough knowledge regarding the nature of lunar ices so they can design the right hardware for these missions, test the hardware, and execute surface operations during these missions…
LPSC 2019 Presentation on A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LUNAR REGOLITH SIMULANTS IN RELATION TO TERRESTRIAL TESTS OF LUNAR EXPLORATION MISSIONS
Article Note: Off Planet Research simulant was compared in this article.
Lunar regolith simulants (hereafter referred to as “simulants”) have been used in various kinds of terrestrial tests to prepare for future lunar expeditions…
Credit: China National Space Administration
China has grown plants on the Moon. What happens next?
Article Note: Off Planet Research provided expert commentary and background for this article. OPR produces several different types of lunar simulant, one of which is an agricultural grade simulant.
China’s Chang’E-4 lander delivers another first: it’s growing plants on the far side of the Moon….
Wired.co.uk (2019)
Image from chosewashingtonstate.com
Getting the dirt on space research
Washington has had a space cluster since the beginning of the space program. Companies like Aerojet and Boeing paved the way for newcomers who are finding new ways to not only explore the cosmos, but make it commercially viable.
A small startup called Off Planet Research is one such visionary company. They make extra-terrestrial materials.....
ChooseWashingtonState.com (2018)
Local Firm Creates World’s Largest Lunar Lab in Lacey
“Once you’ve landed on the Moon, that is not the best place to discover your equipment needs more testing,” quips Melissa Roth, one of the co-owners and lead researchers of Off Planet Research (OPR).
The surface of the Moon may not seem like a top business destination, but OPR’s founder, co-owner, and lead researcher Vince Roux said the private sector is leading the charge with at least 20 announced Moon missions in the next five years....
Thurstonedc.com (2018)
Alumni Reaching for the Moon
When they were undergraduates, Saint Martin's Alumni, Melissa Roth '17, Vincent Roux '17, and Jamie Widdowson '17, established a process to create large quantities of high-quality lunar regolith (soil) simulant that includes agglutinates (small mass of mineral and rock that are produced, on the moon, by micrometeorite impacts) that mimic those commonly found in actual lunar regolith...
Insights (2018)
Lunar Ambition; These Entrepreneurs Are Set To Turn Moon Dirt Into Pay Dirt
Vince Roux doesn't like modern Science Fiction movies. "They're just so...clean," laughs the Mechanical Engineer. "They're always so white and spotless when they're on the surface of the moon or something. All of the stuff they concoct, that may just be the most grossly inaccurate."
Hollywood, of course, will likely keep whitewashing the dirty....
South Sound Business Journal (2018)
LPSC 2018 Presentation on our successful simulation of lunar ice
We successfully simulated lunar ice based on the observations made during the LCROSS mission. We froze the ice inside our general use Highland and Mare simulants, and observed the mechanical differences in the resulting ice/regolith mixtures. We learned a great deal about how to make lunar ices, which is quite challenging. There are several notable differences in the structure and physical properties between Highland and Mare regolith based ices.
Off Planet Research Brings Lunar Equipment Testing to Olympia
Olympia, we have a solution! To a problem that you probably were not even aware existed. But Washingtonian Vince Roux, lead researcher at Off Planet Research, was very conscious of the problem.
ThurstonTalk.com (2018)
2017 Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) Presentation
With the renewed urgency of returning to the moon and the resulting need to conduct testing of moon-bound technologies, the natural urge is to repeat past patterns and buy a batch of “good enough” simulant that is similar to, but not the same as previously produced simulants. The additional commitment of building and operating the required testing facility....
New Moon-Rock Recipe Could Help Test Rovers
A technology for producing a material that closely resembles the rocky regolith found on the surface of the moon could help scientists design better, more resilient lunar rovers.
"The material on the moon is so aggressive that it destroys the technologies that we send up there," Vince Roux, one of the creators of the artificial lunar regolith, told Space.com. "That's why most of the missions.... Space.com (2017)
2016 Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) Presentation
Currently, there is a lack of high fidelity lunar highland regolith simulant available in large quantities and contained in an appropriately controlled laboratory environment. The absence of this resource is preventing long term, full-scale testing of proposed lunar technologies...