The construction of a lunar base is considered to be a giant step for the deep-space exploration by the human beings. This requires a large number of structural and functional materials, and the in situ utilization of lunar resource is essential for the realization of this ambitious plan. It has been confirmed that basaltic compounds are widely distributed on the surface of the moon. Preparation of fiber using such material and utilization of the developed fiber as reinforcement for composites provide a new way to satisfy the material requirements for lunar base construction.
    Collaborating with Beihang University and Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, a research team led by Professor Peng-Cheng Ma in the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry-Chinese Academy of Sciences, has obtained continuous fiber using lunar soil simulant as a raw material. The team investigated the composition, crystal structure, melting and fiberization behaviors of lunar soil simulant, and found that the lunar soil simulant had similar chemical and mineral compositions with that of the basalt ores on the earth, and the soil was completely melted at 1332 oC. The crystal structures in the lunar soil were homogenized and transformed into the amorphous glass state when the melted material was quenched by water. By using a fiber spinning facility, continuous filament was prepared by taking the melted lunar soil as a raw material. The obtained fiber showed a tensile strength of more than 1400 MPa, comparable with that of the commercial basalt fiber by using the basalt ore on Earth. These results confirmed the feasibility of using lunar soil to prepare continuous fiber for the construction of lunar base.
    The above results have important significance for in-situ utilization of lunar resource to develop structural and functional materials for the construction of lunar base. The work was supported by the Western Light Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Incubation Project of CAS and the Tianshan Xuesong Program of Xinjiang. The research was recently published in the Scientia Sinica Technologica.

Paper information:
    Xing D, Xi XY, Ma PC, et al. Study on the feasibility of preparing continuous fiber using lunar soil simulant. Scientia Sinica Technologica, 2020. doi: 10.1360/SST-2020-0141.

Fig. 1 Preparation and morphology of lunar soil-based continuous fiber