Our simulant ranges start at about $30 per kilogram, depending on quantity and grade. Per kilogram prices decrease with quantity, and discounts are available for educators, researchers, museums, et cetera. Volumetric data is conveniently available on our tech-specs page to help you determine how much MMS you need for your experiments, or if you're planning a project that requires large quantities of Mars regolith simulant then please don't hesitate to contact us.

You can accurately generate a quote including actual shipping costs directly on our website without submitting any payment information (sales tax is not charged): 1) select the product you want (choose size, weight, quantity if applicable) and add it to your cart. 2) click on your cart at the top right of any page and follow the first two checkout steps - a zip code is all that’s required to calculate shipping costs for domestic orders, or just a country selection for international orders. If you have an Educator Discount code you may also enter it on this page.

For educators, you can easily print-to-pdf the checkout page or take a screenshot should you need to submit a proposal for purchase order, and if you complete your order online by purchase card an order receipt/invoice will automatically be generated upon checkout (W9 provided on request). Otherwise, if you require our staff to generate a formal quote for you and process a purchase order manually then our purchase order policy terms will apply.

We have now integrated FedEx 2-day shipping for domestic (USA) orders, and the cost is generally around $20 per 8 kg to ship.

International shipping varies but is around $80 for 2 kg or less, about $160 for 8 kg, and generally around $80 per 8 kg thereafter.

To determine the actual cost of shipping please refer to the previous FAQ (1.1)

Most orders are processed within 5 business days by our fulfillment team before being shipped, and shipping time is typically 2 days from when the order is fulfilled. It’s possible that your order may be processed sooner depending on current order volume/queue, however this is not guaranteed, and we strongly recommend to plan ahead for projects with short deadlines so our team has adequate time to process your order.

Domestic: All domestic orders within the United States are now shipped via FedEx 2-Day service, however it is possible for some rural or non-contiguous destinations to take longer.

International: Orders abroad are also shipped via FedEx and typically arrive within about a week, but in some cases may take 6-15 business days to arrive, which equates to 2-3 standard weeks.

Delays: Weather events, observed federal holidays, and customs/clearance delays (for international) may impact order delivery times.

Please make sure the provided shipping address is accurate and in a clean standard format to help ensure that your order will arrive without any issues (your name, street number & street name, city or township, state or province, zip or postal code, country), and a valid/good phone number is critical with international shipping.

If the shipping address provided at order placement requires an address correction by FedEx in order to be delivered, you will receive a bill for $50 to cover the address correction fee and our administrative time. Should this occur and payment not be remitted for the mistake, the responsible address/email will be ineligible to order from us in the future.

There is a possibility that your country may require additional tariffs on your order. Please consult with your nation’s customs and importation policies for more information.

The Martian Garden complies with all exportation and customs regulations set forth by the United States. The Martian Garden is not responsible for any additional importation duties that may be imposed by a foreign country on any order placed - thanks for understanding that this is your responsibility.

The World Customs Organization developed the “Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System”, aka HS-Code. This information may be necessary in some countries to claim your order, and is also referred to as a “HTS-Code (harmonized tariff schedule), or a “goods code, statistics code, statistics number, or tariff code”.

Since Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) does not contain organic material, it is not considered “soil” for customs purposes and should not be classified as such. MMS is most similar to “sand” in the HTS-Code book, but again does not contain organic material so therefore should not impose any customs issues regarding agriculture. The HS-Code for Mojave Mars Simulant is: 2517.10.55

Costs incurred to procure additional documents at the customer’s request will be passed through to customer, such as a Certificate of Origin, or Certified Invoice.

Yes. If you have a preferred shipping carrier then our team can assist in dropping off your order with a preferred carrier for an additional handling fee equal to 20% of your order total. Please have your carrier account information along with your preferred delivery speed available when you contact us.

Should you provide a preferred carrier for a large/freight order, simply contact us for arrangements to have your preferred carrier pick it up from our warehouse. Large/freight orders not picked up from our warehouse are subject to a 10% storage fee for every subsequent 10 calendar days from the date your order was fulfilled. An order is considered “fulfilled” when The Martian Garden provides final shipping dimensions or proof of prepared shipment.

Like most school districts, universities, and institutions, if your organization has the means to submit payment for a PO via purchase card, then the most efficient/cost-effective method is to submit an online generated quote to your admin/business office and complete your order directly on our website with your purchase card. No sales tax is assessed and a W-9 may be provided on request, and you will receive an order invoice/receipt once your order is placed.

Otherwise, Purchase Orders are accepted under The Martian Garden’s net/0 payment terms, and there is a 10% administrative fee to manually process them. Purchase card is still the preferred payment method, or ACH/Bank transfer, and lastly check by mail - banking and mailing details are provided on invoice. Please contact us and our team will gladly accommodate the RFQ/PO process and provide a formal quote, W9, Soul Source Justification (SSJ) document if needed, or other required documents such as a vendor packet (with the understanding that our payment terms supersede).

The Martian Garden does not profit from shipping costs, bank service fees, or credit card fees - these costs are directly passed through to the buyer. Bank/wire transfers incur a $25 fee for domestic, and $46 for international, and a 3% transaction fee is applied for processing purchase card payments.

The Martian Garden understands that Purchase Orders are a legally binding promissory note. However, our decision to no longer extend credit for net/30+ payment terms is an effort to mitigate loss and reduce administrative workload allowing our small business to be more agile.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation with our PO policy and payment terms, and we are aware that not all organizations may be willing or able to conform to these terms.

As always, The Martian Garden is a proponent of efficiency including in the workspace, which is why we are proud to offer a robust and secure online commerce platform designed for users to simply and safely place orders directly from our website where you can also shop and build quotes with ease.

For more details regarding shipping, please refer to the information above in the previously answered FAQs.

Please note: The Martian Garden is not equipped to support the use of facsimile machine technology.

Mars Regolith Simulant

No. Actual Martian soil - or "Regolith" - has never been returned to Earth. Mars regolith simulants are aggregates (crushed rocks) made of Earth materials which have been selected for their chemical similarity to the crust of Mars.

The terms "Soil" and "Dirt" have specific meanings - here on Earth. For example, "Soil" refers to a mixture of eroded rocks and minerals, clay and loam, decayed organic material, and a robust ecosystem of soil bacteria, fungi, insects and more.

"Regolith", on the other hand, refers to any loose, eroded material that is found on the surface of any planetary body. For example, the loose, dust-to-gravel sized sands that cover the surface of Mars are known as Mars Regolith. Similarly, the fine dusty material on the surface of Earth's Moon is known as lunar regolith. There's also Venusian regolith, Plutonian Regolith, and even Asteroid Regolith. 

In 2007, NASA and JPL Scientists developing the robotic scoop of the Mars Phoenix lander discovered that the Mars simulant available at the time (Orbitech JSC-Mars 1) had a tendency to rapidly absorb water. Because searching for water ice was Phoenix' primary mission, a new material was required to replicate the results they were looking for.

The In Situ Instrument Systems and Planetary Science sections of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), led by Dr. Gregory Peters, set out to find a less weathered and less hygroscopic material than the preceding JSC Mars-1 simulant. Found in an ancient volcano in the Mojave Desert’s Saddleback Basalt, the iron-rich igneous rock known as Mojave Mars Simulant had been discovered.

Earth and Mars are both rocky, terrestrial planets, and are geologically similar in many ways. The crusts of both planets are principally composed of Silicate minerals, such as quartz, that are made up of silicon and oxygen. After silicates, the next most dominant minerals are iron oxide and aluminum oxide. On Earth, aluminum oxide is more common than iron oxide; on Mars, iron oxide is more dominant than aluminum oxide. This important difference is what gives Mars its red color, and is one of the most important differences between Earth and Mars.

The original Mojave Mars Simulant is composed of an igneous rock called basalt - that has a higher concentration of iron than many other igneous rocks on Earth. This gives the material a reddish color like Mars, and changes the aluminum-iron ratio to a value closer to that found on Mars.

No. Although perchlorate salts have recently been identified on Mars, exposure has been linked to thyroid problems in humans. It would be unsafe for our customers and our staff to handle perchlorate salts without personal protective equipment. 

If your research requires the use of perchlorate salts in your simulant, we recommend adding either calcium or magnesium perchlorate to MMS-2 Enhanced Mars Simulant at a 0.006:0.994 gram-to-gram ratio. 

Mojave Mars Simulant is crushed Saddleback Basalt, and basalt itself is an extremely common, naturally occurring, non-toxic igneous rock. Small particles of basalt are present in all grades of MMS and can be a particulate inhalation hazard. Use respiratory and eye protection when working with large, dry quantities of MMS.

Read our Safety Data Sheet

We process the Mojave Mars Simulant developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the Mars Phoenix Mission, known as Mojave Mars Simulant. Boulders and rocks from the same exact deposit of iron-rich igneous rock, called Saddleback Basalt that’s used by JPL, have been crushed to a mixture of particles ranging from fine powder to coarse gravel. This aggregate is then transported back to our Texas site where it is sift sorted multiple times to separate it into coarse, fine, and superfine grades of simulant; then vacuum-seal packed and labelled waiting for your valuable research/projects to bring it to life.

MMS-1 is the original Mojave Mars Simulant, developed by the JPL for the Mars Phoenix Mission, and The Martian Garden uses the same source material of Saddleback Basalt as identified in the original NASA research. For more info

MMS-2 is an Enhanced Mars Simulant. We start with Super Fine Grade MMS-1, then add iron III oxide, silicate minerals, sulfates, and magnesium oxide. These additives enhance the chemical similarity of MMS-2, making it as close to Mars as possible.

Enhanced Mojave Mars Simulant 2 (MMS-2) is a chemically enriched blend of Mars regolith simulant. Based on MMS-1, we add Iron III Oxide, Silicon Dioxide, Magnesium Oxide and Calcium Oxide. The addition of these compounds changes the Aluminum Oxide : Iron Oxide ratio. This ratio is critical - on Earth, aluminum oxides are dominant, while iron oxides are more abundant on Mars. By changing the Al:Fe Ratio, we can get MMS-2 closer to the chemical composition of Mars than any other Martian simulant.

The best way to determine how much simulant your project will require is to first determine the volume of the containers or area you'll be filling with material - measure the container's length, width, and height, then multiply all three - length x width x height. Then, multiply the volume of your container by the density of the simulant grade you'll be using (see below). For example, to completely fill a 4' x 4' x 1' box with fine grade material (66lb/ft3), you'd need (4x4x1)x66 = 1,056 pounds of fine grade MMS-1.

 
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