Chinese astronauts will test sample bricks for moon research base

Bricks made from artificial lunar soil will be sent to China’s space station next month for a three-year experiment to see how they hold up

Reading Time:2 minutes

Scientists have put forward a “lunar pot vessel” design for the research base that could be 3D-printed on the moon or assembled there using lunar soil bricks with the help of a robot. Photo: Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Published: 6:00pm, 8 Sep 2024Updated: 4:24pm, 25 Sep 2024

Chinese scientists plan to send bricks made from simulated lunar soil into space to see how they hold up in extreme conditions – and if they can be used to build a research base on the moon.

The sample bricks will be sent to the Tiangong space station next month on the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft, according to Ding Lieyun, an expert in intelligent construction from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.

Ding and his team will observe how the samples degrade under radiation and temperature changes in a three-year experiment.

The sample bricks are made from artificial lunar soil. Photo: CCTV

“We can bake the bricks to a strength of 100 megapascals here on Earth, which is much harder than concrete,” Ding, who heads the university’s National Centre of Technology Innovation for Digital Construction, told a live audience during a show aired by state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday.

But he said research was needed to determine whether the bricks could withstand the harsh environment on the moon.

A standard clay brick typically ranges in strength between 10 and 20 megapascals, while high-strength bricks used in specific structural applications can reach up to 50 megapascals.

Ding said the artificial lunar soil had components that were nearly identical to those of the real thing, though each sample contained slightly different ingredients.