AS NASA PREPARES TO VISIT AND SAMPLE NEAR EARTH ASTEROIDS (NEOS) AND OTHER LOW-GRAVITY REGOLITH COVERED BODIES IT IS ESSENTIAL TO DEVELOP BEST PRACTICES FOR SAFE EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT INTERACTION WITH THESE SURFACES. HERE WE PROPOSE AN EXPERIMENT THAT TESTS NEW PROTOCOLS WHICH WOULD MINIMIZE EJECTA FROM INTERACTIONS WITH PLANETARY REGOLITH SUCH ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH THE USE OF SLOW FLEXIBLE PROBES; THIS IS A POTENTIALLY TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH WHICH IS INSPIRED BY THE GROWTH OF PLANT ROOTS THROUGH SOIL. THE RESULTS OF THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL ENABLE AND ADVANCE THE DESIGN OF PROCEDURES AND EQUIPMENT FOR SAFE OPERATION BOTH HUMAN AND ROBOTIC ON THE SURFACES OF ASTEROIDS INCLUDING IN SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION. THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS EACH CONSIST OF A FLEXIBLE MOTOR-DRIVEN PROBE THAT IS INSERTED INTO A SIMULATED REGOLITH SURFACE UNDER VARIOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS DERIVED FROM AN EARLIER GROUND-BASED STUDY. PART 1 OF THE EXPERIMENT (EMPANADA-3D) WILL HAVE SAMPLES CONSISTING OF HIGH-FIDELITY REGOLITH SIMULANT. THE DATASET WILL CONSIST OF (1) LOAD-CELL MEASUREMENTS OF THE FORCE APPLIED TO THE PROBE AS IT PENETRATES THE REGOLITH AND (2) THE AMOUNT OF EJECTA CREATED AS QUANTIFIED BY AN OPTICAL CAMERA SYSTEM. PART 2 (EMPANADA-2D) WILL USE AN IDEALIZED SIMULATED REGOLITH COMPOSED OF A PHOTOELASTIC GRANULATE ALLOWING FOR THE ADDITIONAL QUANTIFICATION OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES WITHIN THE SUBSTRATE.