Building With Moon Dust

posted April 14, 2021, by Andrew Biedron

In recent years, space exploration has become a topic of high interest across the globe. Space agencies have been planning and launching regular missions to the moon for research and data collection. However, sending so many rockets to the moon isn’t cheap, so scientists have started discussing building a Lunar Village.

Building a Lunar Village would be a big step in space exploration. It would act as a place for scientists to stay for extended periods of time to study things on the moon and in space in general as well as a waystation for rockets being sent further out. As the moon is basically just a giant rock, the biggest concern is finding the materials to build this Lunar Village, as having to ship everything there on rockets would be extremely expensive and time consuming.

By far the most abundant material on the moon is regolith, which is more commonly known as moon dust. Regolith is a very fine powdery substance made up of mostly silicates, a type of rock. In some places, it can be up to 49 feet deep. Luckily for scientists, silicates make up 90% of the Earth’s crust and silicate powder found near volcanoes here on Earth is very similar to moon dust. By using this powder, scientists have been able to test if it would be possible to use moon dust as a base for building materials.

Scientists have found that they could potentially use moon dust to create a concrete-like substance that would work very well for making buildings on the moon. Currently, NASA is working with ICON, a construction technology company based in Austin, Texas, in an attempt to develop a way to make this material. If they succeed, the plan is to 3D print the building materials directly on the moon to avoid the need to ship them up there. ICON has already put something similar into practice in Mexico. They use a concrete based mixture called lavacrete and can print 500 square feet of housing material in 24 hours.

One of the major issues with using moon dust as a building material is its strong electric charge. The moon’s surface is constantly bombarded by cosmic radiation as the moon has no atmosphere, which has caused it to build up a significant electric charge and stick to absolutely everything. This charge would be a large issue when trying to use moon dust as a building material. Recently, NASA developed a spray that solved that issue. A common issue with spacecraft is the buildup of electric charge on the electronics caused by flying through plasma in the Earth’s magnetosphere (the area where the Earth magnetic field is dominant). NASA’s spray mitigates this build up successfully, and it turns out that the charge that builds up on electronics is the same charge that has built up on moon dust. Therefore, this spray would solve that issue with using it as a building material.

With the upcoming launch of Project Olympus and Project Artemis (which are both related to the Lunar Village), we might get to see this technology used in the coming years. The actual design of the Lunar Village has not yet been confirmed, but there have been multiple ideas pitched by architecture firms. If the Lunar Village is successful, many people are excited to see how these new technologies could be implemented on Earth, as their design and intended implementation seem to be an effective solution to issues like construction waste, lack of adequate housing, and others we are dealing with today.