Chinese researchers craft high fidelity Mars soil simulant to support future missions
by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 14, 2025
A team of Chinese geologists has developed a high-fidelity Mars soil simulant, designated UPRS-1, that closely replicates the regolith of Utopia Planitia. This advancement is expected to aid upcoming exploration missions, including China’s Tianwen 3 sample-return effort.
UPRS-1 mimics the mechanical, spectral, physical and chemical characteristics of Martian soil based on data from the Zhurong rover, which landed in Utopia Planitia during China’s Tianwen 1 mission, and NASA’s earlier Viking-2 lander. The simulant addresses a key research gap, as most previous soil analogs focused on Mars’ southern highlands rather than its northern lowlands.
Utopia Planitia, a vast basin approximately 3,300 kilometers wide, is considered geologically important due to evidence of past water activity. Zhurong’s instruments identified hydrated minerals like gypsum and clays, which suggest a once wetter environment.
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG), led by scientists Li Shouding, Li Juan and Lin Honglei, created the simulant using crushed basalt from Shandong province as a base. They then fine-tuned the composition to match Mars soil in terms of its properties, achieving a similarity of 86.1 percent to the actual regolith.
To ensure authenticity, the team rigorously tested UPRS-1 for mechanical behavior under simulated Martian conditions. These efforts are intended to support the design of resilient landers, rovers, and other surface systems for future missions.
UPRS-1 also addresses engineering challenges such as those encountered by NASA’s InSight mission in 2020, when difficulties in soil penetration impeded its heat probe deployment.
Beyond hardware testing, UPRS-1 enables research into extracting water from Martian soil-an essential capability for supporting human presence on Mars. According to first author Diao Yiming, the simulant will help refine technologies critical to the Tianwen 3 mission, targeted for launch in 2028.
The IGG team notes that UPRS-1 can also be used in simulation experiments for astrobiology, particularly in evaluating how minerals such as clays and sulfates affect microbial survival.
Additionally, they have proposed a new framework for assessing and developing high-accuracy simulants tailored to other Martian terrains.
Research Report:Mars soil simulant of Utopia Planitia developed based on Zhurong rover data
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