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takyon writes:

Around thirty customers, including the Kennedy Space Center, have purchased soil simulants from the University of Central Florida:

The University of Central Florida is selling Martian dirt, $20 a kilogram plus shipping. [...] "The simulant is useful for research as we look to go to Mars," says Physics Professor Dan Britt, a member of UCF's Planetary Sciences Group. "If we are going to go, we'll need food, water and other essentials. As we are developing solutions, we need a way to test how these ideas will fare." For example, scientists looking for ways to grow food on Mars — cue the 2015 film The Martian — need to test their techniques on soil that most closely resembles the stuff on Mars.

[...] As a geologist and a physicist, he knows his dirt. Like a recipe, the ingredients can be mixed in different ways to mimic soil from various objects, including asteroids and planets. And because the formula is based on scientific methods and is published for all to use, even those not ordering through UCF can create dirt that can be used for experiments, which reduces the uncertainty level.

Kevin Cannon, the paper's lead author and a post-doctoral researcher who works with Britt at UCF, says there are different types of soil on Mars and on asteroids. On Earth, for example, we have black sand, white sand, clay and topsoil to name a few. On other worlds, you might find carbon-rich soils, clay-rich soils and salt-rich soils, he added. "With this technique, we can produce many variations," Cannon says. "Most of the minerals we need are found on Earth although some are very difficult to obtain."

Mars global simulant MGS-1: A Rocknest-based open standard for basaltic martian regolith simulants (DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.08.019) (DX)

Related: What Kinds of Veggies Can We Grow on Mars? NASA Wants to Know.
Is Anything Tough Enough to Survive On Mars?
Preliminary Results: Potatoes Could Grow in Mars Conditions
Mars Soil Could be Made into Bricks with Pressure Alone
Lunar Regolith Simulants Damage Cells

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