Indigenous Materials for Lunar Construction

1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 313-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Happel
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Extreme Temperatures ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Glass Composites ◽  
Arch System ◽  
Vacuum Radiation ◽  
Lunar Environment ◽  
Indigenous Materials

An important step in the exploration and colonization of the solar system is to build a permanently inhabited base on the Moon. The lunar environment is stark and hostile to unprotected humans. Structures are needed that protect the inhabitants from vacuum, radiation, extreme temperatures, dust, and meteoroids. Transporting the necessary construction materials from Earth is extremely expensive. Fortunately, lunar structures can be built utilizing indigenous materials. The locally available materials include lunar regolith, cast regolith, glass and glass composites, metals and concrete. Their mechanical properties are summarized and their suitability for lunar construction is evaluated. The most promising materials are cast regolith and lunar glass. Several lunar bases concepts utilizing indigenous materials are described and evaluated. Precast modules and large cast in place structures can be fabricated from lunar concrete. Large cylindrical modules, curved and flat panels and arches cast from lunar regolith are also feasible. A tied arch system is considered very promising because of its structural efficiency.

Properties and Mechanics of the Lunar Regolith

1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 285-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart W. Johnson ◽  
Koon Meng Chua
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Solar Wind ◽  
Radiation Protection ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Loose Material ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Silicon Iron ◽  
Iron Aluminum ◽  
Lunar Missions

Knowledge of the lunar regolith is essential to success in lunar missions whether crewed or robotic. The regolith is the loose material overlying more intact strata on the Moon. It varies in thickness from several meters on the maria or lunar seas to many meters on the highlands of the Moon. The regolith is the material humans walked and drove on from 1969 to 1972. In the future, people will use it for radiation protection and as a resource for recovery of oxygen, silicon, iron, aluminum, and titanium. Implanted in the regolith by the solar wind are recoverable amounts of volatiles such as hydrogen and helium. Increasing our knowledge of the mechanical properties of the regolith will enable constructors of the 21st Century to build habitats, do mining, establish manufacturing, and erect telescopes on the Moon. We already know much of the regolith from robotic and astronaut missions to the Moon. There is much more to be learned.

PRO-ACT - Planetary Robots Deployed for Assembly and Construction of Future Lunar ISRU and Supporting Infrastructures

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luís Lopes ◽  
Shashank Govindaraj ◽  
Balazs Bodo ◽  
Kevin Picton ◽  
Joseph Purnell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Plant Size ◽  
Resource Utilisation ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Robot System ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Multi Robot

<p>PRO-ACT (Horizon 2020; https://www.h2020-pro-act.eu/) studies the establishment of a lunar base with the support of a mobile robotic platform formed by three distinct robots, with different features, based on their cooperation and manipulation capabilities. This vision will provide tools in preparation of the commercial exploitation of in-situ resources by assembling an ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilisation) system, essential for a future human settlement at the Moon. PRO-ACT’s vision of ISRU focuses on the extraction of oxygen from lunar regolith to serve as the oxidizer for fuel and artificial atmosphere generation within habitats and 3D printing of relevant structures using regolith for construction purposes – including tiles for roads and elements for shelters. The mineral ilmenite, found in lunar rocks, is the perfect target for the ISRU platform as it contains oxygen, iron and titanium as construction materials.</p><p>The main goal of PRO-ACT is to implement and demonstrate the cooperative capabilities of the multi-robot system in a Moon alike environment that will be replicated at two sites, indoors and outdoors, in Europe. For this purpose, the PRO-ACT project (OG11) will also rely on the outcomes of previous space-related projects from the PERASPERA project and its Operational Grants. Therefore, PRO-ACT will: 1) Review, extend and integrate previous OGs outcomes as part of a comprehensive multi-robot system, in a Moon construction scenario, 2) Develop robust cooperation capabilities allowing joint interventions (navigation in close vicinity and joint manipulation actions) in mixed structured/unstructured environment, 3) Make the capabilities available within a CREW module, 4) Customize existing mobile robotic platforms and prepare facilities to perform tests and demonstrations in a selection of relevant scenarios of Moon construction activities (ISRU capabilities establishment; preparing dust mitigation surfaces; assembling and deploying a gantry/3D printer).</p><p>PRO-ACT will show what robotic cooperation can achieve and will demonstrate the effectiveness of collaborative mission planning, and manipulation and assembly of a supporting infrastructure. Cooperative scenarios will be based on: 1) fine scale surveying of areas prior to construction work, 2) site clearing by grading stones and debris, 3) unloading equipment/construction elements and transporting them to the assembly sites, 4) assembly of specific modular components of an ISRU plant, 5) assisting partial assembly and mobility of a gantry, 6) 3D printing of modular building elements from pseudo-regolith simulant, and 7) sample assembly of printed elements to construct sections of storage, habitation spaces or dust mitigation surfaces. Following this scenario, the key robotic elements, (the mobile rover IBIS, the six-legged walking robot Mantis and a gantry) are outlined according to the corresponding mission architecture. The ISRU plant size is representative of a future lunar mission, with grasping points to assist robotic manipulation capabilities and considering reduced lunar gravity.</p><p>The target of this work is to reach a Technology Readiness Level of TRL 4/5 (depending on scenarios subparts) with this approach, to enable exploration of the Moon environment in the next decade. This will be achieved and proven with the performance of the required tests and demonstrations in Lunar analogues, in order to validate the newly developed capabilities.</p>

DEM modeling of cantilever retaining excavations: implications for lunar constructions

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingjing Jiang ◽  
Zhifu Shen ◽  
Stefano Utili
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Van Der Waals ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Extreme Temperature ◽  
Van Der Waals Interactions ◽  
Gravity Level ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Lunar Environment ◽  
Simulation Results

Purpose Retained excavation is important for future lunar exploratory missions and potential human colonization that requires the construction of permanent outposts. Knowledge in excavation obtained on the Earth is not directly applicable to lunar excavation because of the low lunar gravity and the non-negligible adhesive van der Waals interactions between lunar regolith grains. This study aims at revealing how the gravity level and lunar environment conditions should be considered to extend the knowledge in Earth excavation response to lunar excavation. Design/methodology/approach Two-dimensional Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations were carried out to investigate the respective effect of gravity level and lunar environment conditions (high vacuum and extreme temperature) on retained excavation response. A novel contact model was employed with a moment – relative rotation law to account for the angularity of lunar soil particles, and a normal attractive force to account for the van der Waals interactions. Findings The simulation results showed that the excavation response is non-linearly related to the gravity level. Van der Waals interactions can increase the dilatancy of lunar regolith and, surprisingly as a consequence, significantly increase the bending moment and deflection of the retaining wall, and the ground displacements. Based on the simulation results, a parabola model was proposed to predict the excavation induced lateral ground movements on the Moon. Originality/value This study indicates that an unsafe estimate of the wall response to an excavation on the Moon would be obtained if only the effect of gravity is considered while the effect of van der Waals interactions is neglected.

scholarly journals Mechanical Properties of Mortars Reinforced with Amazon Rainforest Natural Fibers

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Régis Pamponet da Fonseca ◽  
Janaíde Cavalcante Rocha ◽  
Malik Cheriaf
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Flexural Strength ◽  
Natural Fibers ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Amazon Rainforest ◽  
Hot Water Treatment ◽  
Composite Binder ◽  
Naoh Solution ◽  
Reference Samples

The addition of natural fibers used as reinforcement has great appeal in the construction materials industry since natural fibers are cheaper, biodegradable, and easily available. In this work, we analyzed the feasibility of using the fibers of piassava, tucum palm, razor grass, and jute from the Amazon rainforest as reinforcement in mortars, exploiting the mechanical properties of compressive and flexural strength of samples with 1.5%, 3.0%, and 4.5% mass addition of the composite binder (50% Portland cement + 40% metakaolin + 10% fly ash). The mortars were reinforced with untreated (natural) and treated (hot water treatment, hornification, 8% NaOH solution, and hybridization) fibers, submitted to two types of curing (submerged in water, and inflated with CO2 in a pressurized autoclave) for 28 days. Mortars without fibers were used as a reference. For the durability study, the samples were submitted to 20 drying/wetting cycles. The fibers improved the flexural strength of the mortars and prevented the abrupt rupture of the samples, in contrast to the fragile behavior of the reference samples. The autoclave cure increased the compressive strength of the piassava and tucum palm samples with 4.5% of fibers.

scholarly journals Rock Location and Property Analysis of Lunar Regolith at Chang’E-4 Landing Site Based on Local Correlation and Semblance Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Hanjie Song ◽  
Chao Li ◽  
Jinhai Zhang ◽  
Xing Wu ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
Lunar Regolith ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Rock Properties ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Local Correlation ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Property Analysis ◽  
Stratigraphic Division ◽  
Formation And Evolution

The Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) onboard the Yutu-2 rover from China’s Chang’E-4 (CE-4) mission is used to probe the subsurface structure and the near-surface stratigraphic structure of the lunar regolith on the farside of the Moon. Structural analysis of regolith could provide abundant information on the formation and evolution of the Moon, in which the rock location and property analysis are the key procedures during the interpretation of LPR data. The subsurface velocity of electromagnetic waves is a vital parameter for stratigraphic division, rock location estimates, and calculating the rock properties in the interpretation of LPR data. In this paper, we propose a procedure that combines the regolith rock extraction technique based on local correlation between the two sets of LPR high-frequency channel data and the common offset semblance analysis to determine the velocity from LPR diffraction hyperbola. We consider the heterogeneity of the regolith and derive the relative permittivity distribution based on the rock extraction and semblance analysis. The numerical simulation results show that the procedure is able to obtain the high-precision position and properties of the rock. Furthermore, we apply this procedure to CE-4 LPR data and obtain preferable estimations of the rock locations and the properties of the lunar subsurface regolith.

Frost Heaving Soil Road Use Synthetic Adhesive Reinforcement Method

2013 ◽  
Vol 740 ◽  
pp. 759-762
Author(s):  
Hao Zeng Bao
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Industrial Waste ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
Physical And Mechanical Properties ◽  
Road Construction ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Frost Heaving ◽  
The World ◽  
Rock And Soil

In many areas, there are still a development road construction materials, traditionally, often use reinforced concrete, asphalt and other adhesive method to strengthen the low strength of rock and soil anti-freeze expansion coefficient; And now all countries in the world are studying how to use industrial production waste development of new composite materials. One of the most development potential, the production of industrial waste - slime. This paper USES the Russian kazan national construction university experimental methods, in the experiment to improve frost heaving soil physical and mechanical properties of the method for the synthesis of adhesive, based on the feasibility and applicability, environmental assessment of research and analysis, for the use of adhesive put forward a lot of reference value.

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