A Chinese team of geologists has developed a highly accurate Mars soil simulant, dubbed UPRS-1, designed to replicate the unique properties of soil in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars. This advancement marks a critical step toward supporting upcoming exploration missions, including China’s planned Mars sample-return mission, Tianwen-3, expected to launch in 2028.
UPRS-1 is engineered to closely match the physical, chemical, mechanical, and spectral properties of Martian regolith based on detailed data from China’s Zhurong rover and NASA’s Viking-2 lander, both of which collected data from Utopia Planitia. This region, a vast impact basin over 3,300 kilometers wide, is of particular interest due to signs of ancient water activity, including the presence of hydrated minerals such as gypsum and clay.
Developed by an interdisciplinary team at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the simulant is made from crushed basalt sourced from East China’s Shandong province. The material was then meticulously refined to match the geological characteristics of Martian soil. The final product achieves an 86.1% similarity with real Martian soil in multiple attributes, making it one of the most realistic simulants to date.
This new simulant is expected to serve a wide range of applications—from improving the design of rovers and landers, to testing in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) techniques like extracting water from Martian soil. It may also prove valuable for astrobiological experiments, helping scientists understand how microorganisms might survive in Martian-like environments. The team also introduced an evaluation procedure to assist in developing high-fidelity simulants for other Martian terrains.