Hans.Moravec@ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU (01/26/86)
a069 0659 24 Jan 86
PM-Lunar Concrete,0314
Researcher To Make Concrete From Moon Dust
With PM-Voyager-Uranus Bjt
By LINDSEY TANNER
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO (AP) - Seeking concrete ideas on lunar housing for
astronauts, NASA is sending a researcher a golfball-sized clump of
moon dirt to cement his experiments on developing an unearthly
building material.
If Tung Dju Lin can create a lunar cement, the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration plans to establish a factory on the moon to
make concrete for astronaut housing at the turn of the century, the
researcher said Thursday.
The 40 grams of dirt will be delivered next week to his lab at
Construction Technology Laboratories in Skokie, said Lin. It was dug
up during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.
The dirt consists of grayish-brown particles slightly larger than
salt, said Lin. It doesn't look like Earth dirt ''because lunar
material has not been exposed to air and water and oxygen. It still
maintains the physical properties it had when the moon was created
4.6 billion years ago,'' he said.
Doug Blanchard, chief of NASA's Lunar Material Curator Division at
the Johnson Space Center in Houston, described the soil to Lin during
a recent telephone conversation.
Stan Sadin, a deputy director in NASA's office of aeronautics and
space technology in Washington, confirmed today that Lin's research
could lead to the establishment of a lunar concrete factory and
''putting an outpost ... in the spirit of an Antarctic outpost'' on
the moon.
But he said that probably wouldn't happen until after the year 2000.
Lin said his research could save NASA millions of dollars because
''it will be much cheaper'' to make concrete on the moon than to
transport it from Earth.
For the past eight months, Lin, 52, has made concrete with simulated
lunar dirt that is twice as strong as the earthly stuff.
AP-NY-01-24-86 0959EST
***************wmartin@brl-smoke.ARPA (Will Martin ) (01/27/86)
I had thought that the main ingredient in concrete was water. Anybody know if this "lunarcrete" stuff is made in a waterless process? Or does the process start with extracting/creating water from lunar materials, and then using it to make this "lunarcrete"? Will
wombat@ccvaxa.UUCP (01/30/86)
From what I remember about lunar materials, although some of it is high in oxygen content there is little hydrogen available.