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| LUNAR BRICK CONCEPTS |
| David Dietzler, 2007 |
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| Sand molds will yield very crude blocks. We would need something like a small backhoe to dig the sand molds. Then when the cast basalt from the solar furnace hardens we have to get them out of the sand. We could sink a drill on a robotic arm into the blocks and yank them out, but then we have a hole in the block that could lead to structural failure under stress. Perhaps we could put rebar in the hole. Other then that we have to dig the blocks out, tear up the sand molds, then rake up all the moon dirt, pack it down and dig new sand molds with our bobcat sized backhoe. Then we have crude blocks that are not exactly square or rectanbular and won't fit together well. Sure, on Earth you can take rough rectagular stones and slap them together with cement but not on the Moon unless you are down inside a pressurized lava tube or habitat fo some sort. So we have to take the crude blocks and grind them smooth, not sure we need to polish, so we need robots with carbide grinding wheels. Then we have to cut the blocks to make the male and female parts. We could use molybdenum heat probes to melt the female instrusions. We will have to do some grinding of lots of material to make the male protrusions. If only we had a magic laser beam to do some cutting. If we have to polish the blocks we will need some fine abrasives. Perhaps simple Moon dust, or the finer particles sifted out, will serve as a polishing abrasinve. Perhaps we could even use gaseous oxygen for sand blasting with those particles. And we will need jigs and fixtures to hold the blocks when we are grinding and shaping them as well as robots with grinders on their arms and robots to manipulate the heat probes when we melt the instrusions into them while they are contained in the jig or fixture, and robots to move the blocks around, put em in the jigs, move them to storage stacks, and of course more to actually assemble the blocks into something useful on the Moon. So you see, making the simplest lunar product is not simple at all. We will need a few billion dollars' worth of robots to do the job. Cast baasalt is the most readily available material on the Moon. It can even be cast into pipes that are abrasion resistant, gas tight, and resistant to chemicals even 98% sulfuric acid. It is very hard, 8.5 vs 10 for diamond, it can be cut with diamond saws, but what will it do to tungsten carbide grinding wheels? If only we had lasers....it can be cast in fused silica molds mp 1700 C vs. 1250 C. for basalt. Where do we get fused silica on the Moon?? I would suggest volcanic glass deposits dug up and melted, then perhaps purified by zone refining in the low gravity and free vacuum of the Moon to purify the glass, which is what fused silica is basically (window glass is silica mixed with lime and sodium oxide that lowers it's mp). interesting link: http://csxe.rutgers.edu/people/interns/summer_2005/Harrison_Hsu_presentation.pdf This link contains a picture of a cat's head made of cast basalt. Perhaps smooth fused silica molds will make it possible to cast excelled Lego blocks.....but then how do we make the fused silica molds on the Moon??? Details, details.. Below are some concepts for interlocking lunar bricks of cast basalt.. |