As NASA goals to have a permanent presence on the moon, the Artemis program and scientists from a university in Florida teamed up as they built a new method for constructing a base on Earth's only natural satellite.
Members of the media stand next to a Moon rover prototype for future Artemis missions at the Black Point Lava Flow near Flagstaff, Arizona, on October 24, 2022. OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images
(Photo : OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images) Members of the media stand next to a Moon rover prototype for future Artemis missions at the Black Point Lava Flow near Flagstaff, Arizona, on October 24, 2022.
3D Lunar Regolith Printed Bricks
As Nasa's Moon mission with the Artemis program approaches, Interesting Engineering reported that several scientists from the University of Central Florida had run an experiment for 3D printed bricks made of lunar regolith and salt water, which can help to construct the Artemis Base Camp and build their future homes. Lunar regolith is a combination of dust and looser rocks from the lunar surface.
Alongside the team, UCF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Ranajay Ghosh discovered that these bricks could be used for withstanding pressure 250 million times higher than Earth's capability. He joined the UCF team last 2016 as an assistant professor for the same department.
Ghosh stated that the whole team was delighted and honored that their work was published through Ceramics International Journal and in the New Scientist Magazine. Both publications detailed the whole findings of the study.
The experiment basically answered the ongoing discussion among the space exploration community as they figured out the balance between in-situ extraterrestrial resource utilization and material transported from Earth.
Printing the Bricks
UCF stated on its website that in order for these bricks to be printed, it would need a combination of 3D printing and binder jet technology, which is an additive manufacturing method that "forces out a liquid binding agent onto a bed of powder." Saltwater and regolith powder which was made through UCF's Exolith Lab, will be the key ingredients for the bricks to be bound.
Based on a report by Eureka Alert, these were described as sustainable to produce different parts, components, and construction structures as Ghosh stated that "BJT is uniquely suitable for ceramic-like materials that are difficult to melt with a laser."
Ghosh also added that the faster the scientists develop different techniques that use regolith, the more capabilities will be established, and several expansions to other base camps in the future possible, like on the moon, Mars, and other planets.
According to the report, several experiments were conducted by a different scientist with the same proposal of Ghosh's team in the Complex Structures and Mechanics of Solids Laboratory.
The reason for this is NASA will be going to the moon for the Artemis mission, and these experiments are a stepping stone if there will ever be a separate human exploration of Mars.
For example, the proposed binding ingredient for housing on Mars from a scientist at the University of Manchester. By using human blood and urine, the scientist stated that it would reduce the cost and increase the construction of future homes on the planet.
