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3D Printing With Moon Regolith Simulant (Moon Dust)
Earlier this month I wrote about a 3D printer optimized for space. It now turns out that this printer is now able to 3D print whatever you want using moon dust.
(3D Printing With Moon Regolith)
"Wouldn't it be cool if you could take 3D printers to the Moon and build with Moon dust? That's actually what we're working on now... We've taken our 3D printers that we've adapted for space on the International Space Station and started building parts and tools [using moon dust simulant] so when we go back to the Moon we can build what we want where we want it..."
I'd like to point out that in his 1951 novel The Moon is Hell, John W. Campbell wrote about marooned members of the second lunar expedition surviving by manufacturing solar cells using lunar materials.
It turns out that there is an earlier successful effort to run a 3D printer on moon regolith simulatant; see this 2012 article 3D Printer Runs on Moon Dust.
For some reason, I enjoy lunar dust stories; perhaps you will, too:
- NASA Needs Fake Moondust By The Ton
For testing purposes, noting else will do. And supplies of the real thing, brought back during the Apollo program, have run out. - Lunar Dust Fountains Due To Electrostatic Charges
Science fiction author Hal Clement predicted in a 1956 short story that electrostatically charged lunar dust particles might actually suspend themselves above the surface. - Skiing That Soft Lunar Powder
"Oh, boy, it's beautiful out here! Reminds me of Sun Valley," Apollo 15's Jim Irwin declared from the Hadley Rille. - Moon Dust Substrate For Solar Panels
Simulated moon dust has been used to make the substrate of a solar cell. - Regolith Excavation Challenge Yields Prize Money
Contestants in NASA's Regolith Excavation Challenge finally struck gold; not in lunar dust, but in prize booty.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/22/2014)
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It's fascinating to me how the Apollo program forced people to think outside their usual boxes.
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