The mimicking of extraterrestrial soils is fundamental for the testing of rovers used to explore extraterrestrial planets, the understanding and optimization of locally-sourced concrete to better exploit in-situ resources, and to carry on research and feasibility studies on the possibility to cultivate edible vegetables on other planets. In this scenario, the geological and mineralogical community plays a fundamental role in trying to reproduce extraterrestrial “simulated soils” on planet Earth. In this work, we have created a prototype “regolith simulant” of Mars starting from the study of the geology of the planet and by exploiting the geology of the Piedmont region and its array of rocks and minerals.

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