Build a house on the moon! "Lunar soil bricks" are here

The building bricks we use in our daily lives generally include red bricks, green bricks and concrete bricks, but have you ever heard of "moon soil bricks"?

The so-called "moon soil bricks" are made by Chinese scientists by simulating the composition of moon soil and are intended to be used in the construction of a moon base in the future. In a while, this "moon soil brick" will be flown to the Chinese space station on the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft to conduct exposure experiments in space.

What is the difference between “ lunar soil bricks ” and ordinary bricks ?

According to Zhou Cheng, a professor at the National Digital Construction Technology Innovation Center and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the "lunar soil brick" has a mortise and tenon structure and a density comparable to that of ordinary bricks, but its compressive strength is more than three times that of ordinary red bricks and concrete bricks , which is equivalent to being able to withstand a weight of more than 1 ton per square centimeter.

This type of structure may be used for assembly and construction in the future construction of lunar bases.

What kind of tests do “lunar soil bricks” need to withstand before they can shoulder the heavy responsibility of building houses on the moon?

The temperature on the moon during the day is over 180℃, and it drops to -190℃ at night. If you want to build a house, you must first accept the challenge of drastic temperature changes.

Because there is no atmosphere to protect it, a large amount of cosmic radiation and many micrometeorites will hit the surface of the moon.

There are also moonquakes with high vibration frequencies.

These will put forward stringent requirements on the mechanical properties, thermal properties and radiation resistance of lunar construction materials.

Why do “lunar soil bricks” go to the Chinese space station?

In order to verify the performance of the "lunar soil brick", a sample of the "lunar soil brick" will be sent to the Chinese space station on the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft. After completing the space experiment, the first "lunar soil brick" is expected to return to Earth by the end of 2025.

Experts told reporters that there are three key performances to be verified for the "lunar soil brick" in its space journey, including:

Mechanical properties of "lunar soil bricks" . In the space environment, it is very important to determine whether the mechanical properties of the samples will degrade.

Changes in the thermal properties of "lunar soil bricks".

The impact of radiation on "lunar soil bricks". Because the moon is a vacuum environment and there is a lot of cosmic radiation, it is also worth verifying whether the "lunar soil bricks" can withstand the effects of cosmic radiation.

How are “lunar soil bricks” made?

The complex environment on the lunar surface places extremely high demands on the performance of "lunar soil bricks". How are "lunar soil bricks" made? Zhou Cheng introduced that "lunar soil bricks" are formed by vacuum hot pressing and sintering , and the whole process is roughly divided into three steps.

The first step is to weigh the simulated lunar soil and put it into the mold according to the weight. Because the lunar soil is very loose, it needs to be pressed in the mold container.

After the pressure is applied, engineers will place the pressed mold with simulated lunar soil into a vacuum hot press furnace, add insulation facilities, and heat it up to sinter it.

The third step is to fire the "lunar soil bricks" at high temperature.

The "moon soil bricks" are made by a 100% in-situ molding process, without any other material added during the whole process. This is also a very promising construction method in the construction of future lunar bases.

Researchers: When building a lunar research station in the future, we may be able to obtain materials on the moon

When introducing the production process of "lunar soil bricks", researchers mentioned a word - in-situ molding process. In other words, when building a lunar research station in the future, it is possible to use local materials on the moon, such as lunar soil, solar energy, minerals, etc. to build houses directly , without the need to transport prefabricated building components from the earth.

This can greatly reduce the cost of lunar construction. After the space exposure experiment, these simulated "lunar soil bricks" will accumulate scientific research data for future lunar construction, thereby optimizing the actual plan.

Zhou Cheng said that the samples for simulating the sintering of lunar soil are divided into three sample plates. "In fact, we designed the entire exposure time to be three years. Every other year, a sample plate will be sent down to the Earth with the samples exposed in the space station to conduct related experiments."

In order to make full use of the precious opportunity of space measurement, the research team designed the "lunar soil bricks" brought to the Chinese space station into two forms: columnar and sheet :

The columnar "lunar soil bricks" are mainly used for mechanical testing;

The flaky "lunar soil bricks" with larger exposed areas are used for thermal and radiation effects testing.

In addition to their different shapes, these "lunar soil bricks" also use 5 different simulated lunar soil components and 3 different sintering processes to provide more accurate scientific research data for the subsequent construction of the lunar base.

Planning and production

Source: CCTV News WeChat Official Account (ID: cctvnewscenter)

Editor: Wang Mengru

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin