“Be Prepared!” cries the motto of several organizations. It could also be the motto of everyone connected with this study:
“Extraterrestrial regolith is hemostatic and potentially suitable for hemorrhage control in space,” Nabil Ali-Mohamad, Ting-Hsuan Wang, Lih Jiin Juang, Nuoya Peng, Massimo F. Cau, Kevin Cannon, and Christian J. Kastrup, Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis, vol. 10, no. 1, 2026. (Thanks to Michael Makris for bringing this to our attention.) The authors explain:
Background: Long-duration space missions beyond low Earth orbit pose increased risks of injury to astronauts. Traumatic hemorrhage will be a cause of preventable death. Due to payload constraints, in situ production of medical materials is essential. Regolith from the Moon, Mars, and asteroids is rich in silicates, which may serve as a hemostatic agent.
Objectives: Here, we aimed to evaluate whether extraterrestrial regolith simulants, their mineral components, and meteorites can activate coagulation through factor (F)XII and control bleeding….
Results: All extraterrestrial regolith simulant samples accelerated clotting, thrombin generation, and FXII activation in normal plasma [from pigs], with reduced effects in FXII-immunodepleted or FXII-inhibited plasma.