Description: The lunar simulant project consists of simulant experts from many NASA Centers and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL), with particular experience and scientific backgrounds relevant to simulant design, production, and use. Together, the team serves as the Agency's Simulant Advisory Committee. The tasks for the project team include 1) providing lunar simulant consultations and recommendations for Game Changing Development (GCD) Program-funded projects. In addition, numerous non-GCD projects have reached out to the committee for advice and is supported as resources permit; 2) provide lunar simulants in small amounts (less than or equal to 10kg) to GCD projects, and work to get future larger simulant needs defined and funded; 3) publish a NASA Technical Memorandum update of the NASA Lunar Regolith Simulant User's Guide; 4) participate on the NASA Simulant Advisory Committee bi-weekly meetings; 5) collaborate with JHU-APL's Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC), including participation in LSIC's Lunar Simulants Working Group; 6) familiarization and interaction with the HLS-UG-001 Human Lander Systems User's Guide, Human Lander Systems Lunar Thermal Analysis Guidebook (LTAG), NASA-STD-1008 Dust Mitigation Standard, SLS -SPEC-159 Cross Program Design Specification for Natural Environments (DSNE), Lunar Thermal Environments Task Team (LTETT), and NASA/TP-20220018746 Lunar Dust Mitigation: A Guide and Reference; and 7) provide content and oversight to lunar simulants database on the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) website. Previous efforts of the team included 1) publishing an update to the Simulant User's Guide, 2) vetting previous public simulant database documents for compilation and eventual release on SSERVI's website, 3) performing a survey of GCD-funded and LSIC-related projects that utilized simulants as to their needs, which included the types of simulants as well as their quantities; 4) working in collaboration with commercial lunar simulant providers to achieve improvements in commercially available simulants to better meet NASA's needs, specifically in the creation of the highest fidelity lunar highlands simulant produced to date; 5) characterizing available simulants and comparing them in terms of how well they replicate specific aspects of lunar regolith utilizing Figures of Merit methodology; and 6) distributing small amounts (less than or equal to 10kg) to simulant users and assisting in the identification of sources of larger quantities of regolith simulants.

Benefits: NASA benefits from: 1) Being able to confidently conduct technology development tests and experiments with quality lunar simulants that have the geologic and physical attributes needed for the specific technology and tests or experiments. 2.) Having a NASA Simulant Advisory Committee composed of lunar regolith/simulant subject matter experts for consultation on NASA-funded technology development projects and commercial lunar simulant development. 3) Having an 'easy-to-read' lunar regolith simulant user's guide for use by technology project engineers and scientists to better understand the attributes and qualities of lunar simulants. 4) Having the expertise within the Committee to discuss, with technology developers, the limitations of simulants that could be relevant for testing and operations. Additionally, the Simulant Advisory Committee is networked such that any new simulant development is brought to their attention, and they are able to share the new simulant types with other members of the Committee. The team is highly focused on providing the simulant best suited for the technology under development.