I dont believe you are part of the Regolith AWG? I just added you to rectify 
Because I sent out a recap summary by email to the @RegolithAWG on Thursday:
Regolith AWG — Kickoff Recap
First meeting was: Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Hi Regolith AWG members,
A recap from our very first Regolith AWG meeting on Wednesday, June 17 (which is monthly 3rd Wednesday, 9a PT; 12p ET). This was a kickoff: introductions, scoping the problem space, and landing on the first project directions. Full detail is in the meeting recording. 
Resources: | Shared group Mtg Notes | Forum-Space | Regolith AWG group | AWG About | AWG Calendar | Sub-Group Master Table | AWG Join Form
A new AWG is born. Welcome to the newest OSDR Analysis Working Group, co-led by Borja Barbero Barcenilla and Jared Long-Fox. The group grew out of the Plant AWG, where many of you did the early work growing plants in regolith simulants (producing both a book and a paper mining historic Apollo data). The time was right to widen the lens past plants to human health, microbes, geology, and infrastructure, with lunar surface activity ramping up. We meet the 3rd Wednesday of every month, 9-10a PT / 12p ET.
Who joined. A cross-disciplinary first turnout: Borja Barbero Barcenilla (co-lead, Texas A&M), Jared Long-Fox (co-lead, UCF), Ben Sikes (Univ. Kansas), Nicholas Brereton (University College Dublin), Harmeet Singh (Toadstool Farms), Marina Stegmann (Agate Institute), Nathan Smith, Laura Fackrell, Imara Perera (NC State), Steve Blattnig (NASA Langley), Amir Mokhtari (Poland), and Ryan Scott.
Our main ask (this is the point of the AWG). Help shape the first projects:
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Project interest form — tell us which directions you want to work on
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Most discussion stays on the Forum-Space so it stays accessible to everyone
Three starting project directions. These came out of earlier scoping by Ryan, Borja, and Jared:
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Compositional mapping of the lunar surface. Pulling from disparate sources (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and other remote sensing, USGS LMAP) to map composition, plus the harder problem of hazard and geotechnical mapping (bulk strength, cohesion) and mapping where regolith would be most suitable for plant growth.
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Dataset curation and standards for regolith in OSDR. Only a handful of regolith studies currently sit in OSDR (roughly 5 to 7, approximate; browse the current OSDR regolith search). One is Apollo 15 regolith with Arabidopsis grown in it, including omics and imaging. There is also decades of legacy data (for example late-1990s and 2000s lunar dust toxicity work) that was never collected or curated. A community voice can make the case to NASA for collecting, curating, and opening it under FAIR principles. API call for regolith related OSDs.
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Plant and plant-microbe growth in regolith. Building on the Plant AWG’s foundation, toward transformation and food. Borja will detail this direction further at the next meeting.
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Other ideas? Investigation across lung, to skin, to plants, nutrition, multi-species, multi-organ?
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Other ideas? Microbial binders and regolith radiation shielding?
Cross-cutting threads worth tracking. Human health and dust toxicity (lung and trachea organoids in development at NASA Ames, skin effects, CNS and Parkinson’s risk); regolith as radiation shielding and how that drives site preparation; ISRU and construction, where the binder problem dominates (how to make regolith stick without launching mass), including growing microbial binders (e.g., the Biomason approach) and the water constraint that comes with them; and biological sample return from the Moon, where ESA has signaled interest in community input. May want to reach out to Lynn Rothschild at Ames to give a talk, or someone from her lab? Here is here NIAC award project. Have Piyumi Wijesekara give a future talk (trachea/lung organic and regolith dust)? Have Jared Broderick give a talk?
Papers/refs worth checking out (shared in the chat):
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Fackrell, Humphrey, Loureiro, Palmer, … Long-Fox (2024). Overview and recommendations for research on plants and microbes in regolith-based agriculture. npj Sustainable Agriculture, 2, 15. DOI (co-authored by two of our own, Laura and Jared)
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Pohlen, Carroll, Prisk, Sawyer (2022). Overview of lunar dust toxicity risk. npj Microgravity, 8, 55. DOI
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Barbero Barcenilla, Rivero, Lynch et al. (2025). Feeding the cosmos: tackling personalized space nutrition and the leaky gut challenge. npj Microgravity, 11, 45. DOI (the paper that sparked the idea for this AWG)
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Loftus et al. 2008: “The Chemical Reactivity of Lunar Dust Relevant to Human Exploration of the Moon” [u]https://www.lpi.usra.edu/decadal/leag/DavidJLoftus.pdf[/u]
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NASA Human Systems Risk Board, and their 29 Risks and Directed Acyclic Graphs, with one on “Dust Risk” - see pages 30-31: [u]https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20220015709/downloads/TP_Directed%20Acyclic%20Graphs\_%20A%20Tool%20for%20Understanding%20the%20nature%20of%20the%20NASA%20Human%20System%20Risks_NASA-TP-20220015709.pdf[/u] “This DAG centers around Atmospheric Dust Levels that can occur within vehicles after Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Operations on celestial bodies. During EVA Operations, Dust Sources from the lunar or Martian surface can result in dust being carried back into a vehicle or habitat, potentially on space suits. The extent to which this will occur depends on Vehicle Design, Suit Design, and the Seals/Gasket designs that are included to prevent dust entry into a vehicle.”
Also referenced: Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) (free to join, strong on the engineering side, a natural partner - hopefully this AWG could be a biology voice in that group down the road) • LPI Lunar Sample Atlas • NASA Physical Sciences Informatics (what about material and mechanical property studies and data, and relevance/impact on bio-life-shielding) • HRP Human Research Roadmap evidence reports
Action items.
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Jared to keep comprehensive notes for every meeting
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Jared (and Laura, who is well connected there) to reach out to LSIC once the group has more traction, targeting later this summer
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Everyone: help map the landscape of data sources, data questions, and gaps, and who we can plug in
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Borja and Jared to build the speaker lineup (suggestions welcome via the talk sign-up form)
Looking ahead.
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Next Regolith AWG monthly: July 15, 9–10a PT / 12p ET. Featured talk: Laura Fackrell to give a ~20-minute overview of the field, grounding our many disciplines in where regolith science stands today. Find it on the AWG Calendar or join @RegolithAWG for the invite.
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Reminder on an HBISS seminar: June 25, Kexin Huang on “AI Agents and the New Way Biologists Work.” Details
Cheers,
-Ryan, on behalf of the Regolith AWG co-leads