The construction of lunar base has become an important goal of various countries’ lunar exploration and development projects. To achieve such ambitious plan, it requires a large number of structural and functional materials. The lunar surface is covered with a layer of lunar soil, and this is the most abundant resource on the moon. The efficient use of lunar soil for the construction of lunar base has become one of the most interesting research topics for the in-situ utilization of lunar resources.

Inspired by the structures on the earth, such as thatched houses and concrete buildings, researchers proposed to prepare continuous fiber from lunar soil to develop corresponding fiber-reinforced composites for the construction of lunar base. The state-of-the-art progress in this filed is reviewed by a team in the Xinjiang Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and the Moscow State University. The team systematically summarized the achievements made so far from various groups in the field of lunar fiber research, and analyzed the effect of composition, mineral phases, physical and chemical properties of lunar soil or lunar soil simulants on the fiberization process of soil. On this basis, a methodology for the development of lunar fiber was proposed, i.e., through the analysis on the composition, melting behavior and high temperature viscosity of lunar soil, it was possible to realize the preparation of continuous lunar fiber under low gravity in lunar environment. The fiber obtained can not only provide key raw materials for the construction of lunar base, but also offers life and survival guarantees for the human activities in the base (such as waste recycling, vegetable planting, shielding of cosmic rays, as shown in Figure 1). Additionally, the researchers analyzed the working principles, components and assembly parameters of facility for the spinning of lunar fiber, and proposed a concept with modular devices to realize large-scale production of continuous fiber. Theoretically, the team members analyzed the impact arising from the high vacuum, low gravity of the moon on the formation of fiber, and pointed that the former condition could significantly affect the melting and homogenization of lunar soil, while the latter was helpful for the transformation of crystals in the lunar soil to the amorphous state during the fiber spinning, thus providing an effective way to control the mechanical properties of filament. Lunar soil fiber can be used to prepare fiber-reinforced composites through 3D printing or traditional technologies, and functional fiber could also be obtained by taking advantages of the rich metal elements on its surface and the structural characteristics, such as high aspect ratio, to achieve a wider application of such filament.

The progress in this research was recently published in Advanced Fiber Materials, and the paper was selected as a cover for the journal.

The project was supported by the Western Light Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Science and Technology Partnership Program and the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of Xinjiang.

Figure  Preparation of fiber from lunar soil and its application for the construction of lunar base.

Paper Information:

1.      Guo ZS, Xing D, Xi XY, Yue X, Liang CG, Hao B, Zheng QB, Gutnikov SI, Lazoryak BI, Ma PC*. Production of fibres from lunar soil: Feasibility, applicability and future perspectives. Advanced Fiber Materials 2022, 4, 923-937 (Hyperlink).