The work was divided in two approaches: one focusing on the development of hardware for solar additive manufacturing of lunar soil, and another regarding the design of the lunar base, from the shape of the interlockable elements to the scenario or big picture.
Regarding the hardware development, the project main objectives covered the following:
− Utilisation of the Additive Manufacturing (AM) approach for automated fabrication of building elements. A regolith simulant feeder was developed to drop off a thin layer of lunar regolith on top of the sintered layer
− Production of a building element with a fine structure (resolution ≤ 1.4 cm) from lunar regolith simulant without bonding agent, using a solar light source under ambient conditions
− Automated fabrication of larger structures through a mobile printing head outside the solar furnace and in ambient conditions
− Demonstration of producing a building element block from lunar regolith simulant by applying the solar sintering AM approach, using a solar furnace automated setup, under vacuum conditions.
As for the building element design and mission scenario:
− Design and validation of an interlocking building element, which when combined could be used for a variety of space architecture and mission requirements in a modular fashion
− Characterization of the building elements produced (mechanical properties, microscopical observations)
− Study the application of solar sintering element manufacturing in the frame of the larger picture of a lunar base architecture; also by considering concepts such as the ESA Moon Village.
The ultimate goal of the project is to help pave the way for future long duration, sustainable, crewed exploration to the Moon. Projects such as RegoLight use local resources to create ecological solutions using only lunar sand and the sun to build protective shelters for humans.
