Moon Monday #244: Towards lunar construction

Before we begin, a clarifying note about the title of the previous Moon Monday: An Amazon delivery for NASA’s VIPER rover? Well, I’ve received many emails saying how Amazon has a distinct space entity from Blue Origin. It’s fair to point that out but I do know that 😄. I just hoped my readers would enjoy offbeat titles sometimes. Most media outlets are either too clickbait-y or too drab with their headlines. There’s no space for fun in there. But I don’t care about SEO and don’t host ads so why not be a little creative? If wonky titles really bother you though, maybe you should NOT read my list of fun Moon exploration headlines and SLS ones. 🌝

Space agencies and companies worldwide hope to build infrastructure on the Moon from lunar soil, including by heating it into compressed & reinforced structural material. The first detailed examination of sintering Apollo lunar samples by a team of scientists & engineers at ESA has found sufficient similarities in desired quality to sintering simulated lunar-like soil. This means a diverse set of the latter can be a good proxy to test future lunar construction technologies especially since real samples are expensive and difficult to obtain in bulk. The study did find though that the process is sensitive to surface weathering maturity of the lunar soil and particle sizes as well so real lunar soil can always surprise you. From the paper:

The mare samples from Apollo 11 and Apollo 15 exhibited a rapid onset of sintering, indicating it would be easier to accidentally over-sinter or melt mare soil. The sintering temperature of all Apollo samples fell within the range of temperatures required to sinter regolith simulant using the same experimental set-up. Regolith maturity appeared to lower the sintering temperature relative to what would be predicted by composition alone. Sintering simulant regolith with added agglutinates and dust indicated that the smaller average particle size contributed more to the sintering temperature of mature regolith than the higher glass and nanophase iron content.

Work globally towards lunar landing pads

Future infrastructure on the Moon part of long-term robotic or human bases will need protection against lunar sandblasting by incoming landers. For that, ESA has the aptly named PAVER project. It uses powerful lasers to melt simulated lunar soil into glassy solid surfaces, which can then be used to create blocks of landing pads and roads. On the Moon, ESA plans to use a Fresnel lens to focus sunlight instead of using lasers. Landing on the pads instead of loose regolith will drastically reduce sandblasting.

Relatedly, as part of project MOONRISE, which was funded by Germany at €4.74 million, research teams at LZH and TU Berlin have been developing an ML-supported compact laser system to build pads with 3D-printing. The team says they’ve had successful basic terrestrial demonstrations, including under simulated lunar gravity in an Einstein-Elevator. A space-grade MOONRISE hopes to fly on an Astrobotic Griffin lander in late 2026 for a lunar demonstration.

In the meanwhile, a group of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science have been progressing slowly on bacteria-based lunar simulant bricks that are repairable.

NASA is funding the development of entire lunar landing pads.

• In 2023, as part of multiple public-private Tipping Point contracts, NASA funded a Redwire-led project with $12.9 million to develop microwave heating technologies that could solidify and strengthen lunar soil for building infrastructure such as roads, foundations for habitats, and landing pads. The funding hasn’t included a lunar surface demonstration though.
• As part of a Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) solicitation in 2022, NASA awarded ~$2 million to the Colorado School of Mines who in partnership with Lunar Outpost and others were to develop a rover-enabled lunar landing pad construction system for a demonstration on Earth.
• NASA has also awarded a small contract to Astroport to prototype parts of the technology that can melt lunar regolith, convert it to manufacturing feedstock, and use that to robotically assemble landing pads.
• As part of DARPA LunA-10’s selection of 14 companies in 2023 to conduct lunar infrastructure studies on how best to build key pieces for long-term human presence, ICON was to advance its work on building structures using lunar soil. In 2022, NASA awarded a $57 million contract to ICON for continuing to develop said technologies, with a test structure build targeted as early as 2026. A demonstration on the Moon is not in sight for at least two more years.

Furthermore, Jack Kuhr reported last year about the new startup Ethos Space Resources, which has melted lunar soil simulants on Earth and demonstrated the resulting material’s ability to withstand rocket plumes. Ethos plans to build large landing pads for future Lunar Starships with the help of the FLEX rover from Astrolab (a Moon Monday sponsor) in the future. Ethos plans for its landing pads to have embedded navigational beacons, which would aid precision landing—because otherwise a lander touching down anywhere besides the pad would defeat the purpose of it all.

China’s upcoming Chang’e 8 mission, targeted for launch in 2028, aims to not only melt lunar soil but also transform it via 3D printing into bricks and assemble basic structures out of them. With Chang’e 8, China aims to test techniques for constructing future lunar infrastructure like habitats and landing pads in the build up to the ambitious Sino-led Moonbase called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

Related article: We’re building future technologies for the Moon without closing missed milestones 🕳️

Many thanks to Astrolab, Marc Rayman and Pint of View for sponsoring this week’s Moon Monday! If you too appreciate my efforts to bring you this curated community resource on global lunar exploration for free, and without ads, kindly support my independent writing:

Mission updates

• The four astronauts flying around the Moon and back next year on the Artemis II mission have named their Orion spacecraft “Integrity”. NASA continues to target April 2026 as the official date for Artemis II’s launch although quite a few pre-launch preparations remain for this year and next.
• US-based Firefly’s first Moon landing mission was so productive that NASA has awarded a $10 million data buy contract to the company over and above its base CLPS contract of $101 million for the mission. Looking ahead, Firefly is gearing up for its second, third, and fourth Moon missions this decade. From Firefly’s announcement of NASA’s extended data purchase:

The scope of this data buy encompasses images captured by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander during its 45-day transit to the Moon and more than 14 days of surface operations. This includes the first high-definition images of a solar eclipse and sunset captured from the Moon’s surface, that could provide insight into outstanding questions regarding lunar dust levitation and the horizon glow phenomenon.

The data buy also includes communications data and transmit speeds from Blue Ghost’s S-band and X-band antennas, propulsion data from Firefly’s Spectre thrusters during critical burns and the final lunar descent, and other lander performance data. Firefly will also provide NASA with additional payload science data as well as lander and payload temperature data captured during a 500°F [260°C] temperature delta on the Moon.

More Moon

• NASA has launched the Lunar Melt citizen science project for enthusiasts to help it map flows of now-cooled melt deposits formed by asteroidal/cometary impacts using data gathered by the agency’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
• Erika Nesvold makes the case of the US not having presented a clear and coherent argument for the country’s self-imposed claim of defeating China in the new “Space Race” to the Moon.
• Related: How Western media narratives of Chinese lunar activities misjudge capabilities and intent and China is not racing to the Moon