Lunar Regolith Simulants for Space Agriculture: State of the Art and Gaps in Research & Industry

Lunar regolith simulants play a crucial role in advancing research and development for a sustainable human presence on the Moon on different fronts, such as space agriculture. This paper presents a review of the current state-of-the-art in lunar regolith simulants for regolith-based agriculture, with a particular focus on identifying bioremediation methods. Additionally, we identify commercial entities involved in their development and production of simulants, as well as the end users conducting regolith-based agriculture experiments. This paper pursues a gap analysis of biological, technological, financial and logistical gaps in both regolith simulants production field and the users it impacts. Finally, it highlights opportunities to strengthen the alignment between simulant production and the needs of the lunar agricultural research community. This review serves as a resource for fostering collaboration and addressing emerging challenges in lunar surface technology development.