Nanophase iron Fe 0 in lunar regolith appear as ∼10 nm diameter inclusions within glasses produced by microtektite bombardment of the lunar surface ( Keller and Clemett 2001). Lunar regolith has increasing abundances of agglutinate glasses and nanophase metallic iron content with decreasing size (Gaussian average size is 3.0 µm) ( Liu and Taylor 2008). Fine-grained lunar dust is levitated by solar ultraviolet radiation during the day and by solar wind flux at night ( Horanyi et al. Lunar dust is a ubiquitous problem on the Moon due to high particle angularity imparting high abrasiveness on seals, optical surfaces, thermal surfaces and, for human missions, deleterious physiological effects.
Although it is fruitless to speculate on the course of such future entrepreneurship, several possible applications come to mind such as the manufacture of solar power satellites ( Ellery 2016) and space-based geoengineering ( Ellery 2017) from lunar resources that circumvent the high costs of launch from Earth. Once productive assets are emplaced on the Moon, the private sector may exploit these assets in the pursuit of commerce - private space companies have flourished recently including SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and Moon Express. Our concern is to leverage lunar bases/habitats from in situ resources beyond the supply of water to robotically build the entire habitat from in situ resources in preparation for human occupancy. 2009) - this implies that reliability is enhanced if in situ resource utilization (ISRU) can be leveraged to the maximum extent, i.e., as close to 100% as is feasible. Long duration missions require infrastructure with the ability to self-repair to yield 100% reliability ( Murphy et al. The lunar base is also an essential precursor to a Mars base to mitigate the risks of the latter ( Mendell 1991). Fabrication of assets using in situ resources on the Moon is an extension of the goal of eliminating in-space spares and reducing re-supply from Earth. We consider the lunar base as the central component of the Moon Village and explore the degree to which it might be leveraged from local resources. For a sustained presence on the Moon, we need to emplace a space infrastructure which itself is premised on leveraging local resources as far as possible. Beyond this, the Moon Village is an open concept to build a complete infrastructure comprising several lunar bases of perhaps 100 personnel devoted to different tasks operated by different institutions. Currently, the US Lunar Gateway is also envisaged to be supported by a lunar surface habitat, a lunar mobile habitat, and a lunar terrain vehicle for deployment at the lunar south pole. Clearly, the Chinese programme is focussed on lunar base development for human habitation. The Chinese Chang’e programme is a vigorous lunar exploration programme ( ) – Chang’e 4 landed on the lunar farside and hosted a small garden of seedlings that germinated on the Moon Change’e 5 recently returned almost 2 kg of lunar samples to Earth from the 1.2–2.0 By old Oceanus Procellarum region to enable calibration of solar system ages based on cratering densities Chang’e 6 will be another sample return mission in 2023 followed by Chang’e 7 and then Change’e 8 scheduled for 2027 which will operate a 3D printer to demonstrate use of lunar regolith as a structural material. Nous abordons également la fabrication de l’intérieur de la base lunaire à partir de ressources locales. La majorité des systèmes constituant une base lunaire peuvent être fabriqués à partir de ressources in situ.
Pour imprimer en 3D une base lunaire, nous devons imprimer en 3D la structure portante, le système de distribution électrique, le système de chauffage à l’eau, le système d’eau potable, le système d’air et le système de transport orbital à partir de ressources in situ. Une gamme de métaux, céramiques et composants volatils peuvent être extraits des minéraux lunaires pour soutenir la construction d’une base lunaire qui comprend la structure, la tuyauterie et le système de distribution électrique. Nous sommes intéressés à tirer parti des ressources lunaires pour fabriquer une base lunaire entière d’une manière totalement durable et qu’elle minimise les approvisionnements requis de la Terre. Nous adoptons la philosophie des peuples autochtones qui ont excellé en matière de durabilité.
Nous explorons les limites de l’utilisation des ressources in situ (URIS) sur la Lune pour maximiser la vie sur la Lune en construisant des bases lunaires à partir de matériaux in situ.