Regolith as substitute mold material for aluminum casting on the Moon

Abstract

ESA, NASA, and other space institutions are planning the return to the Moon. In the next decades, a human outpost on the lunar surface is going to be established to extend the opportunities for science and economy. For this project, new materials, methods, and processes based on In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) are needed. One aspect is the casting of metals to produce tools, construction elements, or infrastructure, which are to frail or too large to be transported with a rocket. Earth-based manufacturing relies on sand-casting or permanent mold casting processes. These could be adapted for Moon manufacturing with lunar regolith. Regolith can be shaped and/or sintered to produce a mold similar to sand-casting or permanent mold casting. This paper presents results from first experiments carried out by TU Braunschweig and Orbit Recycling with aluminum, Al-alloys and the regolith simulant TUBS-M. It is shown that it is possible to cast a wide range of aluminum parts using lunar regolith. Using a permanent mold, it was possible to achieve multiple casts from one mold. Thus, new ISRU based adapted processes for lunar manufacturing could be possible.