CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS FROM IN-SITU RESOURCES ON THE MOON AND MARS

摘要

The development of permanent planetary outposts is constrained by the performance of construction materials and availability of in-situ resources. Lunar materials have a low calcium oxide (CaO) concentration and may be unsuitable for cement formulation. Nonetheless, lunar anorthosite rocks (17% CaO) and lunar basalt (12% CaO) have been successfully used in formulating a cementitious material. Elemental sulfur has also a variety of applications as a binding, non-hydraulic material for concrete. The main advantage of sulfur-based concrete in planetary enviroments is the avoidance of high-energy processes needed for hydraulic cement production and, mainly, the non-necessity of water. The major sulfur carrier in lunar samples studied to date is iron sulfide in the form of troilite (FeS), probably of meteoritic origin. However, the possibility of finding non-meteoritic sulfur-rich ores cannot be totally excluded. Martian soils appear to have been thoroughly mixed by repeated dust storms over perhaps hundreds of millions of years. The analytical results of soils at the two Viking sites (Chryse and Utopia, 1976) and the Pathfinder site (1997) showed close physical and chemical compositions in spite of enormous distances apart from each other. This chemical homogeneity of the soil on a global scale implies the availability of raw materials at virtually any location on the surface of Mars. In addition to concrete-based materials, other possibilities including ceramics (from microwave regolith sintering), cast basalt and ice (in the case of Mars) will be evaluated considering resource exploration and exploitation, processing and implementation possibilities.