Pain Point

There is critical need of infrastructure-building abilities for future, long-term missions to the moon and to Mars. Currently, taking large-scale infrastructure or building materials to space is not ideal. 3D-printing technology is a promising manufacturing method for the development of such complex technological items in a harsh, remote environment under conditions of scarce resource availability. However, it is challenging to identify an ideal base material to print reliability with.

Existing Solutions

One option is to use lunar regolith as a ceramic precursor material. However, to make regolith pliable, it needs to be mixed somehow. A common method of mixing ceramics is sintering, which is a process that turns powdered material into a solid mass by applying mass heat or pressure. Sintering is not ideal because of the vast electric power required. Sintering also produces brittle samples in vacuum environments, and would require unrealistic time and energy to produce lunar habitats. Furthermore, most methods of mixing lunar regolith would require water which is assumed to be unavailable or scarce for such long-term missions.

Proposal

This proposal explored the possibility of formulating a semi-viscous material using JSC-1a, Carbon-Fiber, and urine and using that as an extrusion composite for additive manufacturing. Moreover, that composite material would be tested for its printing abilities and structural properties under vacuum conditions. The successful implementation this of technology would provide NASA with a sustainable way to have access to building material for lunar bases. The initial proposed budget included the procurement of materials and development of the mixture, testing facility costs, and any miscellaneous costs.

This project was completed as part of the NASA L’Space NASA Proposal Writing & Evaluation Experience Academy (NPWEE) in the Spring 2022 session. A concept was proposed to a committee, which was then further researched to write a formal solicitation. As part of this program, the team learned to work with subject matter experts to write and review proposals, and compete with other teams for a change to win funding to further develop the proposed idea. I primarily functioned as the principle investigator for this team and initiated the concept generation.