China tests bricks that mimic moon soil in preparation for building its lunar base

 

Will China be able to build its base on the moon using lunar soil? Beijing is trying to answer this question by sending bricks designed with this innovative material into space on Friday for testing.

These bricks, made on Earth from components that mimic lunar soil, will be transported to the Chinese space station Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") by a cargo spacecraft launched on Friday evening as part of Beijing's program to send an astronaut to the moon before 2030 and build an international base there by 2035.

"China launched the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Friday night to carry supplies to the Tiangong space station," the Xinhua news agency quoted the Chinese space agency as saying.

China has invested billions of dollars in its space program in recent decades to catch up with the United States and Russia.

Several samples of bricks, with different compositions, will be subjected to harsh conditions similar to those on the moon.

"It will basically be a matter of exposing them to space," Zhou Zheng, a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan (central China), whose team of researchers made the bricks, told AFP.

"We will put them outside the space station and leave them there with the weather" to "see if their performance deteriorates," he added.

Any material on the moon faces extreme conditions, including temperatures that can vary greatly, potentially ranging from 180 degrees Celsius above zero to 190 degrees Celsius below zero.

Since the moon is not protected by an atmosphere, it is exposed to a large amount of cosmic radiation and micrometeorites. Moonquakes can also weaken structures built on the moon.

Zhou Zheng and his colleagues have developed a technique to make different types of bricks from materials available on Earth, including basalt.

They are inspired by materials collected by the Chinese Chang'e 5 probe, which in late 2022 was the world's first mission in four decades to retrieve lunar soil.

The black bricks are three times more resistant than regular bricks and their pieces can be stacked together, avoiding the use of a binding material that could be a challenge on the Moon, according to Zhou Zheng.

The team has also designed a 3D printing robot to build dwellings.

"The goal in the future is to use the resources available on the site, the lunar soil (...) to carry out different types of construction," Zhou Zheng explained.

Making bricks directly on the Moon is "definitely something to try" because "using the materials available there is much cheaper than having to ship them from Earth" in spacecraft, Jacco van Loon, a professor of astrophysics at Britain's Keele University, told AFP.

Other countries aiming to build a lunar base are also developing bricks that mimic lunar soil.

As part of NASA's Artemis program, which hopes to return humans to the moon in 2026, researchers from the University of Central Florida are testing bricks made using 3D printers.

The European Space Agency has conducted studies on how to assemble the bricks, inspired by the Lego structure.

Jaco Van Loon believes that the Chinese experiment "has a good chance of success and the results will pave the way for the construction of bases on the moon."

China's project, called the International Lunar Research Station, was launched in partnership with Russia.

According to official media, about ten countries (including Thailand, Pakistan, Venezuela and Senegal) and about forty foreign organizations are involved in the initiative.