Soil from Mount Vesuvius was used to turn a piece of Italy into Mars. This powdery reddish dirt, called pozzolana, has been known since antiquity for its unique properties. Romans used it to build their temples and monuments, and today scientists and engineers used it to simulate the surface of the Red Planet. Around 150 tons of pozzolana were brought from near Naples to fill the main arena of a new test facility commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA), inside aerospace company ALTEC on the outskirts of Turin. There,…
