South Korean researchers turn simulated lunar soil into building blocks
Using simulated lunar soil, South Korean researchers have developed the engineering that turns that soil into building blocks shaped as needed.
The researchers first produce simulated moon soil by grinding black volcanic rock from Cheorwon County bordering the North. They then use a microwave to turn the sand-like simulant into solidified blocks. Lee said the team has developed a technique to make blocks by heating the soil in a mold to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius in two to three hours and cooling them. In space, the process could be powered by nuclear energy.
The article at the link also provides a nice summary of the status of South Korea’s entire space effort.
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Using simulated lunar soil, South Korean researchers have developed the engineering that turns that soil into building blocks shaped as needed.
The researchers first produce simulated moon soil by grinding black volcanic rock from Cheorwon County bordering the North. They then use a microwave to turn the sand-like simulant into solidified blocks. Lee said the team has developed a technique to make blocks by heating the soil in a mold to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius in two to three hours and cooling them. In space, the process could be powered by nuclear energy.
The article at the link also provides a nice summary of the status of South Korea’s entire space effort.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
These blocks are for compression; I expect them to, er, explode if filled with 1 bar from the inside.
I assume the same technique will work for asteroid regolith, after we spin those rubblepiles around.
One block at a time is OK. But not for any large construction project.
If you scale it up and make larger blocks will they get even heat or will the corners be colder and not as hard.
I would like a sprayable cement make from rigolith.
Make a cement foundation then inflate a dome on top of it. Spray the cement onto the outside then deflate the done and pull it out of the door. Use it over and over again to create a whole village of domes.
Ir send up a dome and spray the cement on the inside to make it rigid. Any water used in making the cement could be recovered by dehumidifying from the inside until the cement is dry.