Building a lunar base with 3D printing
February 1, 2013
Lunar base made with 3D printing (credit: ESA)
Setting up a lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from local materials.
Renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using simulated lunar soil (regolith).
The architects devised a weight-bearing “catenary” dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micrometeoroids and space radiation, incorporating a pressurized inflatable to shelter astronauts. A hollow closed-cell structure — reminiscent of bird bones — provides a good combination of strength and weight.
1.5 ton building block (credit: ESA)
The base’s design was guided by the properties of 3D-printed lunar soil, with a 1.5 ton building block produced as a demonstration.
“3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth,” said Scott Hovland of ESA’s human spaceflight team.
“As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials,” said Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group. “Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic.”
Printing process
The UK’s Monolite supplied the D-Shape printer, with a mobile printing array of nozzles on a 6 meter frame to spray a binding solution onto a sand-like building material.
Multi-dome base being constructed (credit: ESA)
3D printouts are built up layer by layer — the company more typically uses its printer to create sculptures and is working on artificial coral reefs to help preserve beaches from energetic sea waves.
“First, we needed to mix the simulated lunar material with magnesium oxide. This turns it into ‘paper’ we can print with,” explained Monolite founder Enrico Dini.
“Then for our structural ‘ink’ we apply a binding salt which converts material to a stone-like solid.
“Our current printer builds at a rate of around 2 m per hour, while our next-generation design should attain 3.5 m per hour, completing an entire building in a week.”
D-Shape printer (credit: ESA)
Comments (40)
by Camaxtli
At the current rate of human space exploration progress, this sort of thing looks decades out from now and pretty resistant to accelerating technological progress. I’m more eager to see a Bigelow habitat(s) set on the moons surface, set up in a cave or covered up with regolith. Not as fancy as 3D printing bases, perhaps, but the achievabililty makes it far more exciting to me.
As far as 3D printing goes, I’m still waiting to see 3D printing of dwellings on earth to take off. It’s been years since Singularity University showcased Sofya Yampolsky and ACASA in 2010 and 3D house printing. That’s gone nowhere from what I can see.
by beatriz valdes
Great to see someone like you so up to date on these spectacular scientific advances, and specially that you follow Singularity expectations. Though nowhere near as knowledgeable, I too am a Singularity fan, and hope to live long enough to live long enough!
by tim the realist
Need a big rail gun to shoot Slugs of “glue” to the moon. Then have solar powered swarm bots gather them to the nuclear battery powered printer.
by GatorALLin
or the space elevator idea (ok 2 of them put together).
by Mjr_Dzaster
Do you think that they are getting their ideas from the already existing extraterrestrial structures that exist on the moon now? Could be possible I suppose. And no…I’m not joking…I’m just another one of those conspiracy nuts. Right? Although a friend of mine (rest his spirit) who used to work in the Pentagon during the 1950′s and 1960′s and through part of the 1970′s and who had a top secret job as an Air Force cryptographer told me that it is quite true that there are many extraterrestrial structures on not just the dark side of the moon, but also on the side that we see. And he said that we DO have ET’s right here on our planet amongst us as well as having bases deep in the crust of the earth. Of course I thought this was fantastic story telling at the time. But as I’ve gotten older and wiser, I see that what you and I are bombarded with in the corporate owned and controlled Main-Stream Media is wholly an illusion of grand proportion. This 3-D printing for moon structures also ought to be considered for building homes for the poor of the world. Certainly the cost would have to be figured out…but if the Illuminati do not have a plan in place for culling the human herd (which they do of course), it is still essential that alleviating some of the pressures and stress that the poor must deal with, will only help our race in its entirety as other solutions are invented to help our brothers and sisters rather than just cull human beings with Wars of Aggression based on lies and greed for the limited dwindling natural resources we have left on this planet. At the rate that the human race is overpopulating this planet, it is imminent that we will poison ourselves into extinction long before we can overcome our egos long enough to AGREE to a sane, compassionate solution.
Also Bri…Edtior WAS joking. A little levity is always a good thing.
by Bri
@Mr.Dzaster: I love being silly. I agree that levity is a good thing. As for our invisible, all powerful, benevolent overseer, it’s hard to know what position she takes. After all she is being controlled by an extraterrestrial disguised as a cat. All bets are off as tohow she really feels. Like I said I like to be silly too. You evoked ET, bad move. Expect to see an imitation crop circle on your front lawn.
by GatorALLin
…..smiles…..
by cacarr
“Do you think that they are getting their ideas from the already existing extraterrestrial structures that exist on the moon now? ”
No.
“I’m just another one of those conspiracy nuts. Right? ”
Correct.
by beatriz valdes
Its beyond my ken to figure out what would be the purpose, the advantage, the reasoning to keep hidden from humanity the possibility, or as you say, fact, of extraterrestrial footsteps here or on the Moon. Specially in this global communicating age, when minds and capabilities are trying to work together to find sooner many important scientific goals.
by DeBee Corley
We are going on a grand adventure. With the fabulous wealth of some individuals, we may be able to bypass government and do this.
Or, to alleviate the fears of some, just make in unlawful.
by Tom
The SingLunarity is near, it seems.
How about using intense heat (easy to produce with (quasi?)parabolic mirrors and bountiful Lunar daytime sunshine) to melt lunar regolith.
No other materials needed.
Simple, easy machine to build – not that much different to similar sintering technologies we already use on earth.
Would need a big structure for large scale output, maybe – sinter that first, install some re-useable, modular rails, attach sintering module, plug it into the guidance system and let her go. Just need to keep feeding in regolith, though that would be easy to automate, too, I should think.
Come to think of it, though, shoveling regolith would be a good way to reduce muscle atrophy in the construction workers/astronauts.
Or, ship smaller, autonomous sinterbots, and their regolith supplying regobots. Bet we’re close to being able to produce self-organising or directed bots that could do this.
Ed:
Could you ask Ed McCullough is this type of sintering would produce a good building material out of Lunar regolith?
by Gorden Russell
Here is something for you, Tom. Some big mirrors inside a pressure dome with a solar array could do this:
Magma electrolysis
http://www.lunarpedia.org/index.php?title=Magma_electrolysis
Magma electrolysis is one proposed method of producing oxygen from lunar materials. In its simplest form, the method consists of melting the lunar regolith and passing an electric current through the melt, liberating oxygen at one electrode and reducing the material to a lower oxidation state at the other. A flux material is typically used to reduce the melting temperature of lunar soil, however, the process temperatures for magma reduction are nevertheless typically in the range 1300-1400 C (ref: Gimmett 2005)
Significant experimental work on the process has been done by Dr. Edward McCullough at Boeing. (Ref. McCullough and Mariz, “Lunar Oxygen Production via Magma Electrolysis”, Proc. Space-90 Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 22-26 April 1990, pp. 347-356)
by Gorden Russell
Bad news for mirrors Tom. You might want to check this article out. It is long but very well thought. This from:
http://www.magicdragon.com/ComputerFutures/SpacePublications/llox-footnoted.html
“Approximately 40% by weight of lunar surface material is oxygen,
in the form of metal oxides of aluminum, iron, titanium, and
silicon.”
” Criswell et. al. [5] suggested that one could reasonably attempt
to recover by chemical means any of the 7 “major elements” in
lunar material (oxygen, aluminum, calcium, iron, magnesium,
silicon, and titanium), and that 6 “minor elements” (chromium,
manganese, sodium, potassium, sulfur, and phosphorus) could be
recovered in the course of major element processing, but that it
would not be practical to recover the minor elements by chemical
means solely for their own content.
Of the trace elements, they only considered recovery by
vacuum pyrolysis of the four light solar wind elements
(hydrogen, helium, carbon, and nitrogen).”
“More detailed considerations of the possibility of magnetic
extraction of lunar free metals combined with a proposed
electrorefining process for an iron-nickel-cobalt alloy suggests
that all three metals are potentially recoverable.”
“This report concentrates on the extraction, storage, and processing
of oxygen, with a view to assessing the required degree of
automation.”
#
“Recent studies [12]
suggest that sunlight cannot be used directly as a heat source by
the use of sun-tracking mirrors, due to problems of mirror and
window contamination.”
by Steven
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Please check out this new way to treat cancer using quercetin:
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Perhaps write an article about it?
by ben
Seems like too much hard work ($) obtaining/refining magnesium oxide and binding salts up on the moon. Not to mention the vacuum and harsh temperature environments affecting build quality.
Would have thought sintering moon dust was the way to go. I’d also build up inside ready-made craters for a bit more micro-meteor safety and better insulation.
by Gorden Russell
Yes, this is a great idea, and it will certainly help industrialize the moon. But at the beginning, the magnesium oxide will have to come from the Earth. Well, we know that magnesium is light, but how much does it weigh as an oxide? So what it comes down to is funding. Just how much is needed at $10,000 a pound to build that first igloo?
Past searches has shown me that aluminum is on the moon, so I guess that magnesium is there too. But how difficult and expensive will it be to set up a processing plant? Eventually, to be a big success, the colonists will need to make all they need with lunar material.
Let me go search up some docx on moon rocks.
by Editor
Ed McCullough is the smartest guy I know on lunar regolith and how you can process it. I’m planning to interview him. Search: ed mccullough lunar regolith
by Gorden Russell
Thank you, Amara, I’ll be waiting with baited breath, and I will go to his site right away.
In the meantime, I’ve found that there is magnesium in Olivine and Pyroxene and there is a lot of that on the moon:
“The basalts found at the Apollo 11 landing site are generally similar to basalts on Earth and are composed primarily of the minerals pyroxene and plagioclase…” [from http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/samples/
From Wikipedia:
Pyroxene contains:
Iron (Fe),
Magnesium (Mg)
Calcium (Ca)
Silicon (Si)
Oxygen (O)
Maroon to black; the grains appear more elongated in the maria and more square in the highlands.
Olivine contains:
Iron (Fe)
Magnesium (Mg)
Silicon (Si)
Oxygen (O)
Greenish color; generally, it appears in a rounded shape.
###
But I have yet to find out just how hard it is to refine these elements from these minerals.
by Editor
Good info, thanks
by Gorden Russell
Thanks for the great search lead. There are many refs to him. Here is something from an article at National Space Society by Edward McCullough:
“…a domed lunar city 25 miles in diameter and 5,000 feet tall over Shackleton Crater…”
He has been working at this for a long time and has thought long and deep. It will take all afternoon to scratch this trove.
by NegativeNancy
It is crazy difficult to separate the iron or Mg from a silicate. Crush it … melt it … either mineral will retain its chemical identity. Electrolysis??
Anyway, it isn’t done on earth because of the extreme cost. Why would it be economical on the moon?
I think that i read that there are titanium oxides on the moon … now that would make “sense”.
Of course, there is always the who cares argument … Dont we have problems enough? How does mucking around on the moon solve any of the existing problems? (Anthropogenic Global Warming, peak oil, plastic contamination, peak everything, lack of food, water scarcity, mass extinctions, income inequality, racism, sexism, gun violence, you can add more no doubt)
So, who does care? People who have become disenchanted with reality and need a magical kingdom on the moon (in heaven) where everything is new and clean, and there are no trolls. Where everything is free and no one needs to do actual work.
Singularitarianism! Its a religion guys, why cant you see that?
by Editor
“Singularitarianism! Its a religion…”: in what ways?
by Editor
“People who have become disenchanted with reality and need a magical kingdom on the moon (in heaven) where everything is new and clean, and there are no trolls. Where everything is free and no one needs to do actual work.”
YOWL! Sign me up!
by Bri
Singulatarianism is a religion???? What does that make Ray? A priest, bishop, or pope? If it is a religion then it’s the only one that can actually deliver on it’s promises. Going to heaven when you die can’t be verified. Heaven on earth is subjective. Heaven on the moon…… Priceless. Sign me up if Austin Powers is there. Hold off if Dr.Evil gets there first.
by WLGJR
“Singularity is Near” = Scripture of this religion.
Or, like Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos, a “recruitment tool” (In this case, into Kurzweil’s Singularity University).
By the way, I recommend you guys to also check out Frank J Tipler’s “Physics of Immortality”.
by GatorALLin
robot Eskimos
by Mr.X
If the internet had been invented earlier we’d have had headlines like “Car built on assembly line” + “building an assembly line with the help of an assembly line”.
Btw: Lunar just sounds “cooler” than moon^^
After founding the united states of moon and mars, we need to establish the united planets (UP) to help coordinate and prevent conflict ;). United galaxies, united universes follow suit.Jk.
by Editor
“Machine prints on paper, millions of monks out of work” — Gutenberg
“The steamularity is near” — James Watt
by Bri
I hope your just being silly. Monks weren’t displaced for many years and they represented a small fraction of the work force. There is a fundamental difference. Robots and AI will take all the jobs and there is no way for us to compete for the new jobs that are created. All in less than one generation. Time will tell which view is right. I hope I’m wrong to some extent, but if I’m right the effects would be devastating. Better to plan ahead than than to use wishful linear thinking. This isn’t like anything that has happened before.
by Derek New Orleans
I think the future will be more like Wall E, at least the human aspect of that film, than we might like to believe.
by Gorden Russell
That is why I keep talking about taxing the robots and the algorithms, Bri.
Have you heard about all the young, new, lawyers that can’t find work? They owe all those loans and their degrees are worthless.
Firms used to need a roomful of lawyers to check out contracts for errors. Now a new algorithm is doing that. There are even algorithms that can write sports stories and business stories.
by Bri
Yes Gordon we are birds of a feather when it comes to job loss and robots.( who’s gonna pay those wages, when the robots are taking in stages. Darling who’s gonna pay those bills!) I think taxation is too problematic and it doesn’t address the central issues. Economic valuation has evolved over time. When it was barter oriented, it was limited but easy to follow. When money was first developed it was hoarded. Banking changed all that but it has become infected with greed. The fundamental system needs to be redesigned. As I said before if all the profits of all the businesses were accessible to everyone, we would all be billionaires. As soon as you spent the money it would go back into everyones account. The basic powerhouse of capitalism would still function the same. There are issues to be resolved in such a system , but consumerism would thrive. Unnecessary businesses would go out of business. New products would be driven by needs not by false profit driven market manipulation.( think of things like bottled spring water).
by Jon
I doubt the Randians would agree with you about making the profits accessible to everyone and keeping the basic powerhouse of capitalism functioning.
I think you are correct about the need to focus on the sociological changes that will come when the means of production are REALLY in the hands of just a few. Money flow will need to come from somewhere. If the robots can take care of the robots (maintenance AND design), all the talk about advanced technology jobs taking up the slack won’t be the solution. Will the service-based economy be sustainable? Will people’s needs for human interaction make people-based services more valuable?
Or will we be able to distribute the ‘wealth’ in a way that makes sense because there will be so much of it? Is the Wall E reference far off the mark?
by WLGJR
Heh. All of the robots’ income should belong to us. Not just tax.
by Bri
Rays interested in ascribing human rights as they are understood today, to autonomous self aware robots. If that’s the case then they could petition the courts to award all their income to themselves. If that’s comes to pass then the richest person could be a robot. Only the strong survive and to the victor goes the spoils.
by Gorden Russell
Yes Mr.X, “Lunar just sounds “cooler” than moon.” Just wait until you pass a school bus on the highway one night and the local high school marching band throws you a lunar surface.
by Mr.X
I guess I will have to wait a LONG time, since both of these things (high school marching bands- had to look this up) don’t exist where I am from.
Maybe you can scan your specimens and email the scans to me so I can print them out!?
“Yes Mr.X, “Lunar just sounds “cooler” than moon.”
“Lun-a-tick”, the patriotic alarm-clock of the united states of the moon.
by Bri
It’s American slang. To “Moon” someone is to pull down your pants and stick out your but. It’s not uncommon for rowdy high school kids to ” moon” cars as they go by. It’s a cultural thing.
by WLGJR
I think it would be great if the whole universe (all matter and energy in it) are converted to one single sentient entity. Theis would be the ultimate form of panentheism actualized.
by WLGJR
“Earlier”, you mean immediately after Charles Babbage’s first Analytical Engine?
Expect Victorian spellings and grammar formalism (at least for the English articles).