Team develops machine to produce bricks on moon

A Chinese research team has developed a "lunar brick-making machine" that can produce bricks from moon soil, bringing the sci-fi vision of "building houses on the moon with local materials" closer to reality.

The in-situ lunar soil 3D printing system, developed by the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory based in Hefei, Anhui province, uses concentrated solar energy to melt and mold lunar soil, the Science and Technology Daily reported on Monday.

According to Yang Honglun, a senior engineer at DSEL, the lunar brick-making machine uses a parabolic reflector to concentrate solar energy. The concentrated energy is then transmitted through a fiber optic bundle.

At the end of this bundle, the solar concentration ratio can exceed 3,000 times the normal intensity. A high-precision optical system then focuses this concentrated sunlight onto a small point, heating it beyond 1,300 C to melt lunar soil.

The bricks produced by the machine are made entirely from in-situ lunar soil resources without any additional additives. Moreover, these lunar soil bricks exhibit high strength and density, making them suitable not only for constructing buildings but also for infrastructure needs such as equipment platforms and road surfaces.

From conceptual design to prototype development, the research team spent about two years to figure out how to overcome multiple technical challenges in the future, such as efficient energy transmission and lunar soil transport.

For example, the mineral composition of lunar soil varies significantly across different regions of the moon. To ensure the machine can adapt to various types of lunar soil, researchers developed multiple simulated lunar soil samples and conducted extensive testing on the machine before finalizing its design.

"Although the lunar brick-making machine has achieved breakthroughs, constructing habitable structures on the moon still requires overcoming other technological barriers," Yang said.

He explained that under the moon's extreme conditions, such as high vacuum and low gravity, lunar soil bricks alone cannot support habitat construction.

"The bricks will primarily serve as protective surface layers for habitats. They must be integrated with rigid structural modules and inflatable soft-shell modules to complete the construction of a lunar base," he added.

He mentioned a series of technological developments, including lunar brick manufacturing, architectural component assembly and the evaluation of building structure, along with operational validation of both the brick-making machine and construction processes under actual lunar surface conditions.

The habitat modules are designed to withstand the air pressure necessary for human occupancy and are also equipped to integrate with the lunar brick-making machine and surface construction robots, creating a complete building system, he added.

China initiated the International Lunar Research Station, a scientific experimental facility consisting of sections on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit. It is projected to be built in two phases: a basic model to be built by 2035 in the lunar south pole region, and an extended model to be built in the 2040s.

As of April this year, 17 countries and international organizations, as well as more than 50 international research institutions, have joined the ILRS.

Chinese scientists have made simulated lunar soil bricks and sent them to China's space station via the Tianzhou 8 cargo spacecraft that was launched in November 2024.Astronauts aboard the space station are set to conduct space exposure experiments on the bricks to evaluate their mechanical properties, thermal performance and radiation resistance to acquire critical data for future lunar construction.

Xinhua