Extra-terrestrial construction processes – Advancements, opportunities and challenges

Lim, Sungwoo; Prabhu, Vibha Levin; Anand, M.; Taylor, L. A.

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2017.06.038

Cited by 64 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Sieving of the feedstock materials is conventionally regarded as a profound and processrelated necessity for powder bed fusion processes but material sieving on the lunar surface is expected to pose as a considerable challenge for bulk material handling, due to the presence of electrostatic charges in the lunar regolith 42 (further addressed in Section 3.7) thus obstructing the free flow of the feedstock regolith onto the powder bed. Potential mitigation of such an environment/material-related setback could be an integrated sieving system with charge dissipation capabilities.…”

Section: Layer Thicknessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As previously highlighted by Lim et al, the significant lack of atmosphere on the lunar surface is also expected to have a strong contribution into heat dissipation mechanisms. As opposed to terrestrial conditions in which heat is propagated via the conduction and convection principles, radiations is expected to be the predominant head dissipation mechanism which is known to be less effective 42 .…”

Section: Atmospherementioning

confidence: 99%

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Mechanical behaviour of additively manufactured lunar regolith simulant components

Goulas

Binner

Engstrøm

et al. 2018

Proceedings of the IMechE

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Additive manufacturing and its related techniques have frequently been put forward as a promising candidate for planetary in-situ manufacturing, from building life-sustaining habitats on the Moon to fabricating various replacements parts, aiming to support future extra-terrestrial human activity. This paper investigates the mechanical behaviour of lunar regolith simulant material components, which is a potential future space engineering material, manufactured by a laser-based powder bed fusion additive manufacturing system. The influence of laser energy input during processing was associated with the evolution of component porosity, measured via optical and scanning electron microscopy in combination with gas expansion pycnometry. The compressive strength performance and Vickers microhardness of the components were analysed and related back to the processing history and resultant microstructure of the lunar regolith simulant build material. , with a maximum compressive strength of 4.2 ± 0.1 MPa and elastic modulus of 287.3 ± 6.6 MPa, the former is comparable to a typical masonry clay brick (3.5 MPa). The 2 AM parts also had an average hardness value of 657 ± 14 HV 0.05/15 , better than borosilicate glass (580 HV).This study has shed significant insight into realizing the potential of a laser-based powder bed fusion AM process to deliver functional engineering assets via in-situ and abundant material sources that can be potentially used for future engineering applications in aerospace and astronautics.

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Section: Layer Thicknessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Atmospherementioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical behaviour of additively manufactured lunar regolith simulant components

Goulas

Binner

Engstrøm

et al. 2018

Proceedings of the IMechE

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“…These tests proved to be successful and a 3D printer has been permanently installed at the ISS for both emergency part creation and for general component production at the ISS for on-going experiments. In addition to studying small FFF 3D printing, significant research has been conducted in the area of using in-situ materials to create large construction projects off-earth [48][49][50][51][52][53].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene for In-Space Manufacturing Applications

et al. 2019

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A new basalt fiber reinforced acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filament has been developed for fused filament fabrication (FFF, 3D printing) to be used in Mars habitat construction. Building habitats on Mars will be expensive, especially if all material must be shipped from earth. However, if some materials can be used from Mars, costs will dramatically decrease. Basalt is easily mined from the surface of Mars. This study details the production process of the material, experimental results from mechanical testing, and preliminary X-ray shielding characteristics. The addition of chopped 3 mm basalt fibers to standard FFF material, ABS, increased strength and stiffness of the composite material. By adding 25% (by weight) basalt fiber to ABS, tensile strength improved nearly 40% by increasing from 36.55 MPa to 50.58 MPa, while Modulus of Elasticity increased about 120% from 2.15 GPa to 4.79 GPa. Flexural strength increased by about 20% from 56.94 MPa to 68.51 MPa, while Flexural Modulus increased by about 70% from 1.81 GPa to 3.05 GPa. While compression results did not see much strength improvements, the addition of fibers also did not decrease compressive strength. This is important when considering that basalt fibers provide radiation shielding and the cost of adding basalt fibers to construction materials on Mars will be negligible compared to the cost of shipping other materials from earth. In preliminary digital radiography testing, it was shown that 77% of X-rays were shielded with 25% basalt fiber added (as compared to neat ABS). In small-scale 3D printing applications, the 25% fiber ratio seems to be the highest ratio that provides reliable FFF printing.

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“…Missions to mars will require a temporary base on the Moon, consequently several options to create structures on the Moon using available lunar soil are discussed and under investigation. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] If insitu materials could be used on the Moon (such as regolith or regolith derived concrete), to build large civil engineering structures, then extensive amounts of mass launched from Earth could be avoided, making space exploration more economical and hence possible. 12 For a mind-setting, this communication starts with a closer look to the environmental conditions present on the Moon and their effect on envisaged fabrication technology for structural constructive elements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, other difficulties like handling of liquid binders under vacuum circumstances or potential freezing of materials in a wetmix based printing process can be avoided. 11 A basic calculation showed that for sintering based technologies e.g. instead of a laser on the Moon the sun can be used.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In-situ resource utilization–feasibility of the use of lunar soil to create structures on the moon via sintering based additive manufacturing technology

Fischer¹

2018

AAOAJ

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The feasibility of creation of structures on the Moon using lunar soil as in-situ resource and sintering additive manufacturing technologies is discussed. The use of sintering technologies for additive manufacturing and construction using lunar regolith has already been demonstrated. However, an important point of attention for applying such a process under lunar conditions is the generation of volatiles during heating of the solid particles to the sintering temperature and the possible pyrolysis of the material at temperatures higher than the temperatures required for sintering. The analysis of the available data shows, that the production of constructive elements out of regolith with a guaranteed mechanical performance is feasible by maintaining a precisely tuned process controlling the maximum temperatures reached and minimum times required for the sintering of the particles of lunar soil to solids essential for the formation of parts usable for construction of e.g. temporary habitats.

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Extra-terrestrial construction processes – Advancements, opportunities and challenges

Abstract: The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs Extra-terrestrial construction processesadvancements, opportunities and challenges

Cited by 64 publications

References 69 publications

Mechanical behaviour of additively manufactured lunar regolith simulant components

Mechanical behaviour of additively manufactured lunar regolith simulant components

Development and Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene for In-Space Manufacturing Applications

In-situ resource utilization–feasibility of the use of lunar soil to create structures on the moon via sintering based additive manufacturing technology

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