GSC-1 Goddard Space Center

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Simulant Name: GSC-1 Goddard Space Center
Availability: Not Available
Fidelity: Basic
Developed By: NASA Goddard
Available From: N/A
Publications: Taylor, P. T. et al. (2008), Jurassic Diabase from Leesburg, VA: A Proposed Lunar Simulant. NLSI Lunar Science Conference, Abstract #2054.

GSC-1 was only described in a brief abstract by Patrick Taylor in 2008. It is made of rock from a Jurassic diabase sill in the Culpeper basin, VA, that was obtained from the Luck Stone Corporation. The abstract describes plans to crush this rock to make a mare simulant, and states that the mineralogy and texture of the rock is similar to lunar basalts.

There is some confusion, as another simulant is listed in some simulant workshop materials as ‘GCA-1’ and also attributed to Goddard. This may be a typo, and references to ‘GCA-1’ may be referring to GSC-1. Regardless, the current status of this simulant is unknown.

Images

Photograph of a hand sample of the GSC-1 source rock from Taylor et al. 2008: