Basalt fibre reinforced geopolymer made from lunar regolith simulant

In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is a key element for increasing sustainability of extended human exploration missions to the Moon. Such missions might require the capability to build structures like radiation shields, habitat walls or shells, and infrastructure like landing pads, surface paving and dustshield walls on site using local resources as a potentially more economical alternative to bringing all materials needed for the construction from Earth to the lunar surface. Previous studies have shown that geopolymer might be a promising material for construction on the Moon, since lunar regolith can be used as the main part of the geopolymer matrix. All other necessary ingredients for the geopolymerisation of the regolith water and alkaline activator could potentially be sourced on the lunar surface as well. However, curing in vacuum seems to be detrimental to the strength of material formulations that have been explored so far. The objective of the current study is to investigate the structural properties, shielding abilities, construction process and economic efficiency of an optimized geopolymer recipe made from lunar regolith simulant, when cured under simulated environmental conditions (temperature and vacuum) of the lunar surface, evaluating the effects of adding locally sourced basalt reinforcement fibres and superplasticizers. Furthermore we aim at examining the combination of material and construction technique towards its resource efficiency and applicability for lunar surface applications. In this paper we discuss the current status of the study and the results of the ongoing experiments. Furthermore, we present a preliminary evaluation of the newly developed material compared to other potential lunar construction materials with regard to its structural performance, shielding properties and degree of in-situ resource utilization and offer recommendations for future studies.