NASA reveals 'lunar sandbox' it uses to simulate the moon

With no significant atmosphere or particles in the air to scatter sunlight, light on the moon is distributed much differently than it is here on Earth, giving rise to extreme dark patches offset by ultra-bright regions. This phenomenon, coupled with the presence of moon dust, presents a challenge for future lunar rovers and even human exploration, according to NASA. To work around this, scientists have created a'lunar sandbox' that simulates the conditions on the moon, allowing them to develop algorithms that can guide their robots safely around the environment. The Lunar lab is a 12-foot square sandbox in which researchers build the moon's terrain using statistically-generated features based on spacecraft observations. It contains eight tons of the human-made lunar soil simulant JSC-1A.