Researchers have developed a lunar regolith 3D printer.
“Regolith” is the name for soil on the Moon’s surface. It’s not called “soil” because it does not contain any organic matter. It’s rock dust, basically.
That dust is going to be very valuable in the future, as it should be the construction material for future lunar habitats and buildings. Why? Because it’s already there and does not have to be shipped on expensive rockets all the way to the Moon.
The question has been, how do you make a building out of regolith? Many approaches have been proposed, such as using concentrated sunlight to melt regolith into bricks for assembly, or mixing it with a binder to 3D print structures. Some experiments have taken place already for these techniques and others.
Now we hear of a new approach taking place at the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory in China. They have developed a prototype of a 3D printer that uses regolith as material.
How does it work? The news report does not specifically explain the process, but does say that they used a “high precision reflective concentrator, and “fiber optic energy transmission”.
That suggests that they could be collecting sunlight with solar panels, and then using that energy to power lasers that melt the regolith.
In addition, they say:
“Tests of its ability to melt and form lines, surfaces, bodies and complex structures have also been completed, and tests of the technical feasibility of the prototype’s solar concentrating technology, optical fiber bundle energy transmission and lunar regolith melting system have been systematically completed.”
That suggests they are quite far along in developing this concept. It may be only a short time before they develop a deployable version that could be shipped to the Moon for real, onsite experiments. China has already successfully landed several robotic craft to the lunar surface already, so this might be a logical next step for their space program.
Via Xinhua
