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With the establishment of a lunar base, many tasks will require direct interaction between the in-situ lunar soil and a wide variety of instruments and implements. The individual tasks may be scientific in nature, or simply the manipulation of the lunar soil. To help fulfill the need for relatively large quantities of lunar soil simulant in researching these operations, Johnson Space Center has developed a new simulant called JSC-1. It is produced from a basaltic pyroclastic sheet deposit located in the San Francisco volcanic field near Flagstaff, Arizona (as reported by McKay et al. in 1993 and 1994). JSC-1 is a crushed, ground, and sieved material that was developed to have similar mechanical properties and characteristics of the lunar soil. Furthermore, this glass-rich basaltic ash can be used in chemical or mineralogical resource studies (as reported by McKay et al. in 1993 and 1994). The Lunar Soil Simulant Laboratory, at the Civil Engineering Department, at Texas A & M University, is responsible for analyzing, storing, and distributing this material to qualified researchers. Information regarding the availability of JSC-1 is provided at the end of the paper. The purpose of this paper is to assess JSC-1 as a close terrestrial analog of the lunar soil and to inform the research community of the availability of the new simulant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Carbonaceous matter on the surfaces of black pyroclastic beads, collected from Shorty crater during the Apollo 17 mission, represents the first identification of complex organic material associated with any lunar sample. We report the chemical, physical and isotopic properties of this organic matter that together support a pre-terrestrial origin. We suggest the most probable source is through the accretion of exogenous meteoritic kerogen from micrometeorite impacts into the lunar regolith. Abiotic organic matter has been continuously delivered to the surfaces of the terrestrial planets and their moons by accretion of asteroidal and cometary material. Determining the nature, distribution and evolution of such matter in the lunar regolith has important implications for understanding the prebiotic chemical inventory of the terrestrial planets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The lunar surface, a key proxy for the early Earth, contains relics of asteroids and comets that have pummeled terrestrial planetary surfaces. Surviving fragments of projectiles in the lunar regolith provide a direct measure of the types and thus the sources of exogenous material delivered to the Earth-Moon system. In ancient [>3.4 billion years ago (Ga)] regolith breccias from the Apollo 16 landing site, we located mineral and lithologic relics of magnesian chondrules from chondritic impactors. These ancient impactor fragments are not nearly as diverse as those found in younger (3.4 Ga to today) regolith breccias and soils from the Moon or that presently fall as meteorites to Earth. This suggests that primitive chondritic asteroids, originating from a similar source region, were common Earth-Moon- crossing impactors during the latter stages of the basin-forming epoch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]