MSNBC - Wanted: Tons of fake moon dirt

If you're a Wall Street Journal subscriber, there's a page one story by Amy Schatz in the Wednesday, March 16, 2005 online edition about how NASA thought the moon project was over, and so over the years gave away most of its fake moon dirt to schools and dignitaries. Suddenly, with the moon exploration program dusted off, they haven't got what they need for engineers and scientists to use for research and development. So they are having to scramble to make more. While they're at it, they'd like to upgrade to simulant more like the real thing. However, with time constraints they might have to use old formulas for now at least. (If you're wondering about that 'March 16' business on a 'March 15' post: one advantage of living in the Pacific Time Zone is that we get many of tomorrow's online newspapers at 9 p.m., because that is Eastern Time midnight.)

The wsj.com article led me to go looking for more, and I found the above-linked one from Jan. 24, 2005, which covers more ground and can be accessed for free. The article is written by Leonard David, a senior space writer at space.com. MSNBC has added links and interactive features.