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Researchers Build Objects With 3D Printing Using Simulated Moon Rocks
MarkWhittington writes "It has been a truism among space planners that future space settlers will have to build things on other worlds out of as much local materials as possible, saving the cost of transporting things from Earth to the moon or Mars. Two professors at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University have taken a step forward toward developing that technology using laser enabled 3D printing using simulated moon rocks to create simple objects."
SIMULATED moon rocks? *sigh* If only Cave Johnson knew about those before it was too late...
First Post?
This may be one more step towards a replicator.
Also, I think we could use the sun to help out http://www.kidstatic.com/2011/06/solar-3d-printer-egyptian-desert-as-materials/ - wouldn't this be a similar idea?
Minecraft... on the MOTHERFUCKING moon
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Not 3d laser printing their bases. Where would they get the energy to do this?
Sun?
Keep in mind:
* the solar energy flux on the Moon's surface is approx equal with the one in Sahara (even a bit better due to no atmospheric absorption on the Moon)
* the "Moon daylight" is 14 times longer than on Earth (true:so is the Moon night)
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I'd go with tidal energy. If the moon's gravity can drive tides here, imagine what it can do there!
More than a bit better and a significant more of the Sun's spectrum hitting the surface (The atmosphere is very effective at blocking certain frequencies of light.) A minor math error, since nights and days on earth are half a day, nights and days on the moon are 28 times longer, but if you go to the south pole, You can harvest sunlight from mountain tops continuously and benefit from deep dark craters for cold research at the same time. As well all the water on the moon is heavily concentrated at the poles
Initially you would want to send robot construction equipment to the moon and a small nuclear power plant to power the machines that would build the first ore smelters and solar energy collectors. Eventually you would have hundreds of solar collection sites, powering an extensive subterranean habitat that was virtually immune to micrometeorite fall and cosmic radiation (being at the poles also eliminates the fear of fatal solar radiation exposure during solar storms.) The materials in the lunar regolith are perfect for construction, building huge mirrors, building sintered construction material using 3D printing, building robotic component using 3D printing, building smelters and solar furnaces. The materials available are even great for building electronic and photonic hardware. I'd love to architect living spaces on the moon. The biggest issues would be providing earth gravity work spaces so people can spend time in perhaps 1.2-1.5 G for 8-12 hours a day to off set the impact of spending 12-16 hours a day in 0.16 G. The very coolest thing is that in large open spaces, human beings have enough strength in their arms and chest to flap wings that would allow a person to fly. You could literally build a 200 ft high aviary, for people. Because of the low G, you could build powerful mirrors on the moon orders of magnitude larger than on earth. With the seeing conditions that Hubble has and unimaginably big mirrors, we could watch the near sentient life scratching its extraterrestrial behind.
Concrete has the slight problem that it requires massive amounts of water. Water is in short supply on the moon, all there is should be reserved for drinking and other essential stuff. This research is in the melting of moon rock with lasers (probably in a powder bed) to manufacture parts. It seems like it behaves approximately like silica, although I do not know whether that's a useful construction material.
Perhaps a sidestep would be "welding" natural moon rocks together to obtain an airtight shell. Then no water is required to build the moon base.
Assuming all the properties are similar to silica it may be possible to create quartz glass with it, allowing for windows.
This lessens the cost of building a base (or maybe a city) on the moon. They are still astronomical, but this is a step in that direction.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Smooth 3D curves still have only one tangent in each point. This is also true for higher dimensions.
By allowing multiple recipients (readers/listeners/etc), a told story - even a /. one - becomes a surface (due to the multitude points of view). Being originated in a single PoV, a tangent is a curve until it becomes another story on itself.
(but I'm not convinced that I want this tangent evolving into a surface)
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
There are 3d printers that use concrete media, and can print you a house?
That's right, using only some detailed blueprints, many tons of reinforced concrete and a team of builders they can "print" you a house in a way that has been almost impossible up to now using only the old-fashioned methods of some detailed blueprints, many tons of reinforced concrete and a team of builders.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I'd love to architect living spaces on the moon.
Prison cells is all they'd be, and I imagine any humans living there would have to be criminals given the option of the Moon or a slow and painful death, much like early transportees to Australia..
No one in their right mind woul choose to live there. At least with Oz you could breathe the air and swim in the sea there, however hellish it was otherwise.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it