"The new space race continues to accelerate as hints of the commercialization   
   of    
   space and the exploitation of space-based materials loom. Just today, NASA    
   issued an unprecedented solicitation titled “Purchase of Lunar Regolith   
   and/or    
   Rock Materials from Contractor.” The solicitation asks contractors to bid on   
   an    
   effort to retrieve between 50g and 500g of lunar regolith, or moon dust, and    
   bring it back to Earth before 2024. The amount of material retrieved does not    
   affect the overall price of the contract, and the contract will be awarded on    
   the basis of being "low price, technically acceptable." Offers are due by    
   October 9, 2020.   
      
   Contractors must provide stringent proof of collection, including giving NASA    
   imagery of the collection, the collected material, and a means of identifying    
   the exact location from which the regolith was retrieved. Collected materials    
   may be any type of lunar regolith, including dusts, rocks, or even ice. NASA    
   reserves the right to independently verify that actual collection took place.   
      
   According to the solicitation, “NASA will determine and use such independent    
   verification methods that will not interfere with Contractor’s   
   activities.” All    
   analysis and assessment of materials will be conducted by NASA.   
      
   Nearly the entire surface of our Moon is covered in regolith, made up of   
   small,    
   loose fragments of rock produced by billions of years of meteoroid and    
   micrometeoroid impacts. There is also lunar soil or lunar dust, a finer subset    
   of regolith with fragments smaller than 1cm. The terms lunar regolith and   
   lunar    
   soil are often used interchangeably, and from the wording of NASA’s    
   solicitation, it doesn’t seem like the space agency is too picky about what    
   types of regolith are brought back to Earth.   
      
   See:   
      
   https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36337/nasa-is-hiring-priva   
   e-contractors-to-retrieve-moon-dust   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)