Establishing Standards for Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization Structural Materials

Abstract

Lunar structures will be exposed to one of the most extreme environments that have ever been considered for human settlements. In situ, regolith-based materials are being proposed for construction on the moon, offering the benefit of reducing the cost of transporting large amounts of materials or prefabricated elements, and relying on the ability to transport mainly the equipment needed to construct landing pads, shelters, blast shields, habitats, roadways, etc. However, the properties of materials that are made, all or in part, from indigenous lunar resources are likely to change based on the make-up of the material, the location where it was taken from, the production processes, and time. No standards or building codes exist for the design and construction of infrastructure on the moon. Engineers will need dependable information about these materials before any design can be completed. Hard-won lessons from centuries of using similar resources on Earth need to be leveraged to develop the best procedures that will be critical for testing such materials for structural applications. Here we discuss the technical challenges of establishing such standards. Using the timely example of a landing pad on the moon, we identify the gaps in both knowledge and testing capabilities that exist today.