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Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base

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icelight
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
Man, I had bet that one of the epoxy/slurry guys would be the first to come up with a working design. They seemed to promising. I guess the only thing I would be concerned about (besides the rather... exciting method of brick formation) is the ratio of dust to aluminum powder. Metal powder, even aluminum, is fairly heavy, and it might be prohibitively expensive to haul up enough to make bricks for a reasonably sized building. That, at least, was one of the pros to the epoxy guys, that they only needed 2-5% of the mass of the final brick in starting material from Earth.
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RAHfanboy
01/08/09

@icelight: I thought the aluminum was already there as part of the "soil."
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Quilt
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
Make it a domed Moon home and you can put me down for 1.
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RAHfanboy
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
I think long term, if there is such a thing, we will be living under ground, with only things like solar arrays and entryways and greenhouse domes on the surface. Start with robot miners and then (much) later move into the excavations. That's assuming there is anything to mine, and I think we will find that there is.
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tande04
01/07/09

@RAHfanboy: I thought there was already talk of a new space race because of the helium-3 on the moon. I know that one of China's stated intrests in landing a person on the moon is for the helium-3.
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RAHfanboy
01/07/09

@tande04: And it's the military high ground. I was thinking we may find that almost everything we mine on Earth will be on the Moon as well, and of course, the Helium-3.
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

@RAHfanboy: Military high ground. Hmm...

You're thinking of MYCROFT and his idea, "We could throw rocks."

Sweet.
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RAHfanboy
01/08/09

@Grey_Area: Scary.
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David Serrano
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
I think nobody has the heart to tell them the bricks are useless without mortar. Guess the first buildings on the moon will be brick igloos!
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Annalee Newitz
01/07/09

@David Serrano: Yeah, actually, igloos are exactly what they're aiming for.
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

@David Serrano: Build the shell from these bricks then inflate a plastic bladder inside. Pop in an airlock and viola.
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Pope John Peeps II
01/07/09

@David Serrano: Bricks can be glued together, and with no wind or weather to speak of, it'll only take a tiny amount of glue.
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Gann
01/08/09

@David Serrano: With their technique, the bricks could possibly be made in place, effectively fusing them together. Or, as someone else suggested, they could just build monolithically.
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Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H.
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
Natural building materials? Interesting, but this is all pointless once the University of Wisconsin finishes their project on making bricks from cheese.
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twDarkflame
01/07/09

@Grrsn Dn: "everyone knows the moons made of cheese"
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Pope John Peeps II
01/07/09

@twDarkflame: moon's

apostrophe indicated possession. Moon is.
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corpore-metal
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
I don't think building or raw materials was ever really a problem for colonizing the Moon.

The problem is what lunar gravity will do to the human body as children are born on the Moon. I don't think we will ever colonize the Moon or other planets in the solar system until we heavily bio-engineer ourselves. Until then, we're just visiting or letting the robots do all the work.
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RAHfanboy
01/07/09

@corpore-metal: Or you just can't come home again, especially those born there. Our bodies will bio-engineer themselves over the generations. Earthers would find it to be a good retirement spot, with the lower gravity possibly extending lifespans considerably.
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Pope John Peeps II
01/07/09

@RAHfanboy: Haha. I don't think you get how basic gravity is to biology. Bones, muscles, even circulation itself is completely built around gravity. Any less, and the body's systems start to get messed up.

Living in space without some sort of artificial, created gravity will be impossible. Or at least will significantly shorten our lifespans.

The best hope for the moon colony is to build very large rotating recreation facilities, to generate g-forces. That way every colonist will be able to recreate and relax for full days at a time.
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Purple Dave
01/07/09

@RAHfanboy:
Sounds great...except for the bit where they all freaking _die_ during liftoff. That part might not sit so well with the AARP crowd.
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Tomosexual
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
Well it's good to see Virginia Tech students shooting for something
*rimshot*
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crashedpc - Haifisch
01/07/09

@Tomosexual: Yeah, my coworker tried that while we were there, visiting a local vendor. AWKWARD.
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Annalee Newitz
01/07/09

@Tomosexual: Boooo! Hiss!
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

@Tomosexual: Too soon, dude, too soon.
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KhaiJB
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
hmm and more applications than they think.

could you pack a mold with ash and ali powder and 'fire' it in an underwater setting? (as in create walls etc in place more easily than trying to drain water / fill with concrete... thinking you tow the mold into place, site it and fire it (locking it to the seabed))
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
This will be very useful for China and India when they build the first habitats up there.
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Log1c
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
The real question becomes, how much energy does it take to make a brick? An hour of energy collected from solar panels on the moon? A day? that would be an extremely long time to build a structure!
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goldfarb
01/07/09

@Log1c: and how much aluminum powder we have to haul up there....
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twDarkflame
01/07/09

@Log1c: Thing is, its theorecticaly also possible to build crude solar panels from the surface dust of the moon.

Effectively, you could have HUUUUGGGGGEEEEE arrays build far in advance for any base.

Frankly I'd be drawing up plans for solar-cell building rovers right now.

Sure, it would take years, decades even, but they could work pretty independantly and for a long time. Its not like theres much weather like mars.

Eventualy we would have lovely big arrays for use by any base or mission that wants to plug into them.
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Grey_Area
01/07/09

@twDarkflame: So, after the solar panel arrays are finished we could send special rovers that would trundle along the lunar surface scooping up regolith and pooping out moonbricks. Then, once there's enough material to work with we send up colonists. Love it!
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crashedpc - Haifisch
01/07/09

In reply to Building Blocks for the First Permanent Moon Base
Hmm... you think they'll let me take a look at that when I'm in Blacksburg next month?
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