GOLDEN, Colorado — The Colorado School of Mines has built a large simulated moonscape. The specialized facility is being used to test lunar rovers and to evaluate lunar landing and launch pads, excavation gear and other hardware ideas.

It's all about getting a lunar leg up on how to work effectively with robotic spacecraft on the moon.

"The Mines Lunar Surface Simulator is up and running. We are using it almost every day for one project or another," said Ian Jehn, an adjunct professor at the school and a structural engineer focused on safe and sound infrastructure for the moon.

Currently, specialists are running rover investigations for the Autonomous Site Preparation: Excavation, Compaction, and Testing project, or ASPECT for short. The work is underway as part of NASA's Lunar Surface

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