3D printing with moondust

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the main process parameters of Laser Melting (LM) type Additive Manufacturing (AM) on multi layered structures manufactured from JSC-1A Lunar regolith (Moondust) simulant powder.Design/methodology/approach -Laser diffraction technology was used to analyse and confirm the simulant powder material particle sizes and distribution. Geometrical shapes were then manufactured on a Realizer SLM™ 100 using the simulant powder. The laserprocessed samples were analysed via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to evaluate surface and internal morphologies, Energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) to analyse the chemical composition after processing and the samples were mechanically investigated via Vickers micro-hardness testing.Findings -A combination of process parameters resulting in an energy density value of 1.011 J/mm 2 allowed the successful production of components directly from Lunar regolithsimulant. An internal relative porosity of 40.8 %, material hardness of 670 ± 11 HV and a dimensional accuracy of 99.8 % were observed in the fabricated samples. Originality/value -This research paper is investigating the novel application of a PowderBed Fusion AM process category as a potential on-site manufacturing approach for manufacturing structures/components out of Lunar regolith (Moondust). It was shown that this AM process category has the capability to directly manufacture multi-layered parts out of Lunar regolith, which has potential applicability to future moon colonization.

Additive manufacturing of physical assets by using ceramic multicomponent extra-terrestrial materials

“…Both materials exhibited a reduction in the element concentration which is due to the low melting and decomposition temperatures of the mineral compounds, thus resulting in evaporation; this result is in line with previously gathered and published data by the authors (25).…”

“…A previous experimental study, mainly focused on building structures out of lunar regolith simulant, gave a process parameters window and a laser energy density range of 0.9 -1 J/mm 2 where samples with no macroscopic defects were built (25). This paper covers a (Table 2), revealed a range of energy densities between 2.5 -4 J/mm 2 where sufficient fusion was evident between the particulates of the material.…”

Assessing extraterrestrial regolith material simulants for in-situ resource utilisation based 3D printing

“…), that would function autonomously and utilise indigenous materials as feedstock [8][9][10][11]. Previous studies have demonstrated that the application of a Powder Bed Fusion 3D printing process can manufacture structures/components from multi component ceramics that closely simulate Lunar and Martian regolith [12,13]. The need to use simulants is due to the scarcity of actual ET materials on Earth; there is a very small, closely guarded quantity of Lunar material and no samples acquired from Mars [14].…”

Mechanical behaviour of additively manufactured lunar regolith simulant components

“…Previous studies related to the concept of 3D printing using extra-terrestrial/astro-materials as feedstock, and their state-of-the art available simulants 14 16 , have covered fundamental 17 23 and their engineering characteristics 24 28 to the development of process parameters 11,13 for the relevant 3D…”