Building a Moon Base Out of Moon Dust

NewsChannel19 ^ | 1.28.04 | NewsChannel19

[ambrose]

Building a Moon Base Out of Moon Dust

From the NewsChannel 19 Newsroom 1/28/04

On January 14th President George Bush announced a new vision for America's space program. We will return to the moon and build a base, and then head to Mars. "I was very excited," says UAH Associate Professor Dr. Sam Toutanji, who is part of the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at UAH. Toutanji is particularly interested in what construction materials a moon base might be built with. He believes concrete is the material of choice. "We can. Three things we need to know, first, do we have water on the moon? Do we have the materials to build concrete, and is the environment conducive to build concrete? The answer to these three questions is yes. We can build concrete on the moon," says Dr. Toutanji.

In 2000 Dr. Toutanji made concrete with a small amount of moon dust, and he says it's comparable to our normal earth bound construction concrete.

A 1994 UAH project aboard the Shuttle Endeavor showed that concrete can be made in micro gravity. But what about the one ingredient that would seem to be missing from the moon's dusty surface, water? "Images from the moon show there is ice on the moon, and if there is ice, that means there is water."

Dr. Toutanji believes we will see buildings constructed of moon dust, and he says why not, it's a lot cheaper than ferrying other building materials to the moon.

[ambrose]

ping away. this article is very interesting...

[etcetera]

Where's UAH?

[ambrose]

Univ of Alabama, Huntsville

[RightWhale]

In 2000 Dr. Toutanji made concrete

If there is not enough water to want to use it this way, structures can be made of moon aluminum and simply buried in moon dust.

[archy]

Where's UAH?

University of Alabama, at Huntsville.

[BenLurkin]

[RightthinkinAmerican]

I insist on an environmental moon impact study first. What about the rare moon darter's habitat? What about old growth moon dust? DO IT FOR THE MOON CHILDREN!

[Yeti]

Even if you have to carry some water from Earth to make it, using native lunar materials as the main ingredient is a good idea. I've often specualted that cave-making and/or ossification of native materials would be likely prospects for lunar construction techniques. I never thought about making moon-crete!

[MrsEmmaPeel]

I suppose the argument could be made that the moon is moving away from us at the rate of 1 inch a year. Given enough time, the moon will be a distant object, and its influence on our tides will have lessened.

So, strike while the iron's hot and just got for it!

[mrsmith]

Heck, just melt an appropriate mix of 'moon dust' in forms. It would require a large enough reflector and some time finding and mixing the materials.

It'd be worth a fortune to find some caves left from the Moon's volcanic age.

[RightWhale]

It'd be worth a fortune to find some caves left from the Moon's volcanic age.

The moon could be full of huge caverns.

[mrsmith]

It sure could we don't know.
But most of the caverns on Earth are formed by water so I think it might be a long hunt. Overhanging cliffs would be almost as good.

One could simply build a form under an outcropping of aluminum and focus sunlight on the aluminum; stop when the form is full, remove the piece and do it again and again. Glass (silicon) could be an important bulding material too.

[RightWhale]

Glass (silicon) could be an important bulding material

Brings back a few years ago when Hoagland was 'seeing' immense glass structures on the moon. Vitrified lunar dust would do very well.

[mrsmith]

Sure wish someone was up there trying out ideas.

"Hoagland"
God forgive me but I hate that idiotic former briefcase carrier for Cronkite. He gets publicity but does it by being such a fool.

[Calvin Locke]

Thanks.

I thought it might be the Utah Astronomical Hoax division of NASA.

[mrsmith]

Cool, this one's nice too:

From New Crops for Space Bases