CHAPTER V
Construction
V.A. Ground procedures
1.
Launching site
Carrying
materials from Earth is very expensive, thus we must build in space a whole
industry for bringing the material we need for the Space Settlement’s
construction. The ground procedures will consist in preparing all the materials
necessary for the Moon base and the L1 temporary base. We will also need to
carry in space materials which can not be found on the Moon, Mars or
appropriate asteroids. We will need powerful shuttles for carrying the crew,
the engineers and the needed robots for the Space Settlement’s construction.
The materials and the space shuttles will be launched from a site in India near
the geomagnetic equator because workforce is less expensive and the gravity
constant is minimal.
2.
Launching techniques and automatic procedures
All
the tools, robots and materials will be sent to the lunar base which was built
before especially for this purpose. After the programmed robots extend the
lunar base for living, the crew consisting in workers, engineers and doctors
will arrive to the lunar base.
3.
Means of transportation
In
the early times, the astronauts were constrained to very difficult exercises,
but nowadays almost any normal person can become an astronaut. The crew will be
transported from the Earth to the Moon exactly like astronauts in common Space
Shuttles.
V.B.
On-orbit procedures
1.
Using L1 as temporary deployment site
The
building of the orbital settlement in L5 will involve the existence of a
temporary “work camp” somewhere near the main construction site. This transit
platform will function as anchorage zone for all materials and crews arriving
both from the Moon and the Earth. For maximum efficiency, it must be placed
between the two major bodies. As we said before, the orbit around L1 would be
ideal for the temporary parking of shuttles, workers and materials during the
construction of the space settlement, as it is relatively close to the Moon,
the main source of materials (58200 Km). For better understanding its
positioning, let’s consider the following example.
Two cosmic bodies of masses M1
and M2 respectively are situated at a distance (d) one from the
other. On the line connecting the two bodies there is a point in which the
gravitational field is null.

Therefore, the body will oscillate in respect with the law
of linear harmonic oscillation. The equivalent constant of elasticity (k) is:


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By matching this relation with the standard relation for
the force of elasticity:
, we can determine the oscillation period of the body of mass
m.

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In the case of our temporary transit platform between the
Earth and the Moon, the equilibrium point is a little different from that in
the situation above, as the body describes a circular motion around the center
of mass of the Earth-Moon system.

;
- the gravitational
force of the Earth;
- the gravitational force of the Moon
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|
The speed of the deployment area in L1 must have a certain
value, so that the Earth, the Moon, the transit platform and the center of mass
of the Earth-Moon system will be permanently collinear. This can be
accomplished only if the angular speed of the body in L1 is the same with that
of the Earth and that of the Moon,
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|
where
is the orbital speed of the Moon around the center of mass of
the Earth-Moon system (
=1Km/s). The distance between the center of mass and the Moon
is
. Therefore,
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|
By combining relations [5] and [8], the general relation
becomes

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We can determine r from relation [9] by using numeric
examples.
The temporary station in L1 is then moved with the desired
y in the direction of movement on its trajectory. The transit platform will
still have two superimposed motions: a uniform circular motion around the
center of mass of the Earth-Moon system and an oscillating movement along its
trajectory, with the amplitude of y. The orbital kinetic momentum of the
transit station will suffer small variations in module, but its orientation
will remain constant. Therefore, the trajectory of the deployment platform will
remain plan.

2. Automatic and
robotic devices
Extreme
conditions in space and on the Moon, including heat and cold, radiation, and
rough terrain, require robots that are mobile; have competent motion in hard or
soft terrain; remain upright or are self-righting; and that are physically
self-contained, durable, and autonomous. To accomplish our objectives the
robots must be controlled by radio waves and hey must have intelligent
algorithms having raised degree of autonomy. The robots operating with minimal
Earth communication are essential for such a complex process of building the
Space Settlement. Robots will pack the ore and this will be “launched” in the
L1 zone, for temporary assembling. We have chosen this solution because it is
hard to launch from the Moon big and heavy assembled parts of the Space Settlement.
For
fuel saving we won’t use Shuttles for carrying components from Moon in space.
We will launch the component parts of the Space Settlement with a “Moon Canon”
thereby the energy used for lifting the Shuttle’s mass won’t be used.
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V.C. Building and
life sustaining materials
1. Material
properties
Titanium
The most important material for the construction of the
space settlement will be the Titanium Oxide. For the construction of the torus
, the 0 gravity center and the annexes we will use an amount of 88980425100 kg of TiO2.
In the table below we will enumerate some of the Titanium
Oxide properties.
We will also use silicium , lead and other metals for the
functional completeness of the Space Settlement.
|
Properties |
|
Aluminium
Pure aluminium is a silvery-white metal with many useful
characteristics. Alloys with small amounts of copper, magnesium, silicon,
manganese, and other elements have very useful properties. Strength on pure
aluminium has a tensile strength of
between 49 MPa and 700 MPa depending of alloying type and the
heat treatment. Aluminium is a very good conductor of electricity, also being
non-magnetic and non-combustible.
|
Properties |
|
|
Density / Specific Gravity (g.cm-3 at 20 °C) |
2.70 |
|
Specific heat at 100 °C, cal.g-1K-1
(Jkg-1K-1) |
0.2241 (938) |
|
Melting Point (°C) |
660 |
|
Electrical conductivity at 20°C |
64.94 |
|
Thermal conductivity (cal.sec-1cm-1K-1) |
0.5 |
|
Reflectivity for light |
90.0 |
|
totally recyclable |
Aluminium is 100% recyclable with no downgrading of its
qualities. |
|
completely impermeable and
odourless |
Aluminium foil, even when it is rolled to only 0,007 mm
thickness, is still completely impermeable and lets neither light aroma nor
taste substances out. |
Copper
Copper is an excellent electrical conductor. Most of its uses are based on this property or the fact
that it is also a good thermal conductor.

Nickel
Nickel is silvery white and takes on a high polish. It is
hard, malleable, ductile, and a fair conductor of heat and electricity.
Nickel gives glass a greenish color. Nickel plating is
often used to provide a protective coating for other metals, and finely divided
nickel is a catalyst for hydrogenating vegetable oils.
|
General |
|
|
Nickel, Ni, 28 |
|
|
8908
kg/m3,
4.0 |
|
|
solid (ferromagnetic) |
|
|
3186 K (5275 °F) |
|
|
370.4
kJ/mol |
|
|
4970
m/s at 293.15 K |
|
|
1.91 (Pauling scale) |
|
|
440
J/(kg*K) |
|
|
14.3 106/m
ohm |
|
|
90.7
W/(m*K) |
|
For the electromagnetic coils we will use supermalloy for
its high magnetic permeability properties.
|
Approximate maximum permeability |
||
|
Material |
μ/H m-1 |
|
|
Ferrite M33 |
9.42E-04 |
750 |
|
Nickel (99% pure) |
7.54E-04 |
600 |
|
Iron (99.8% pure) |
6.28E-03 |
5000 |
|
Silicon GO steel |
5.03E-02 |
40000 |
|
supermalloy |
1.26 |
1000000 |
a. Earth
composition
Earth is a very good source of materials, but taking
objects in space from Earth requires a large amount of energy. Any material which
is already in space has an enormous potential value relative to the same
material that needs to be brought up from Earth. It is more than 10 times
easier and cheaper to bring an object into low Earth orbit from the surface of
the Moon than from the surface of the Earth. This is why we will take only the
strictly necessary resources from Earth, as oxygen, water and construction
materials for the lunar and orbital temporary base.
|
Earth Composition |
|||
|
Mantle + Crust |
Core |
||
|
Substance |
Concentation
(%) |
Substance |
Concentration
(%) |
|
MgO |
36.8 |
Fe |
83 |
|
Al2O3 |
4.2 |
Ni |
6 |
|
SiO2 |
46.0 |
Si |
~10 |
|
CaO |
3.5 |
S |
<5 |
|
TiO2 |
0.23 |
O |
~10 |
|
FeO |
7.6 |
|
|
|
Na2O |
0.39 |
|
|
|
P3O5 |
0.02 |
|
|
|
Cr2O3 |
0.44 |
|
|
|
MnO |
0.13 |
|
|
|
K (ppm) |
230 |
|
|
|
Rb |
0.74 |
|
|
|
Cs |
0.02 |
|
|
|
F |
19 |
|
|
|
Cl (ppm) |
12 |
|
|
|
Br (ppb) |
46 |
|
|
|
I |
13 |
|
|
|
Co (ppm) |
105 |
|
|
|
Ni |
2100 |
|
|
|
Cu |
28 |
|
|
|
Zn |
49 |
|
|
|
Gu |
3.8 |
|
|
|
Mo (ppb) |
44 |
|
|
|
In |
18.5 |
|
|
|
Tl |
5.7 |
|
|
|
W |
11 |
|
|
|
Th |
74 |
|
|
|
U |
21 |
|
|
b. Lunar
resources
The Moon is another potential source of materials. The
Lunar regolith contains some useful ores, in particular TiO2 and FeO. However, the
ore quality is not as high as that of some asteroids, and the moon is almost
totally without volatiles. Water ice has been discovered on the moon, but its
precise quantity is unknown, and the moon is still without any known good
supplies of carbon, nitrogen, and helium.
The first resources which will need to be extracted from
the Moon are discussed below:
Aluminium
Aluminium is one of the moon’s resources. It’s a light,
good electrical conductor, the most widely used conductor material on Earth,
even more than copper.
Being light, it helps building large structures rotating
for creating artificial gravity.
It can also be used as material for building mirrors,
because aluminium mirrors are good reflectors, being able to compete even with those
made out of asteroidal nickel. Atomized aluminium can also be used as a good
fuel, when burned in oxygen.
Aluminum mirrors are good reflectors and could compete with
those plated from asteroidal nickel. Atomized aluminum powder also makes a good
fuel when burned with oxygen. Indeed, it's the fuel source of the Space
Shuttle's solid boosters. On the Moon, it could become the primary fuel source
for chemical rocketry of material to and from orbit (though we would need a
different kind of rocket since the Space Shuttle solid boosters use aluminum in
a kind of rocket we can't make from lunar materials).
There is also a disadvantage. This metal expands and
contracts with temperature much more than ordinary metals, creating a problem
in creating large structures on the moon made out of aluminum, which would be
exposed to extreme day/ night temperatures. That is also why the equipment used
in lunar extraction of minerals is not made out of aluminum, and steel (an iron
and carbon alloy) is better used for any metal structure.Iron (steel) is better
used on the Moon and other such places for metal structures.
The Moon has concentrations of aluminum in an easy to
process mineral form: anorthiteEven if on Earth the main aluminum ore is the
bauxite (containing 25% aluminum), on the moon the most occurring mineral
containing aluminum is the anorthite(20% aluminum) and it is possible and
feasible to process it(the procent of anorthite in the lunar crust is important
from 78% to 80% on the landsites of the Appolo16 mission).
Calcium
The extraction of aluminum anorthite, would make calcium look only as a byproduct,
the anorthite being a calcium-aluminum silicate CaAl2Si2O8.Calcium
is one of the most abundant elements in the lunar soil. Calcium and calcium
oxides are useful in the production of ceramics, but calcium is also an
excellent electrical conductor( it’s not used un Earth as such because it burns
in contact with the atmospheric oxygen as all the metals found in his group of
elements e.g. Magnesium in flashbulbs) in vacuum environments.
At [20C, 68F], calcium will conduct 16.7% more electricity
than aluminum, and at [100C, 212F] it will conduct 21.6% more electricity
through one centimeter length and one gram mass of the respective metal.
Compared to copper, calcium will conduct two and a half times as much
electricity at 20C, 68F, and 297% as much at 100C, 212F.”
Like copper, the calcium metal is easy to manipulate. It
has half of aluminum’s density, but it’s
not good as a construction material because it is not strong at all. Calcium
slowly sublimates in vacuum. Calcium doesn't melt until 845C (1553F).
Titanium
Titanium is a high strength metal. It offers more strength
per unit weight than aluminium and it is used for military aircraft and
missiles.
Titanium mineral, ilmenite, FeTiO3 (iron titanium oxide) is
one of the most attractive economical resources available on the lunar surface.
Ilmenite grains of high purity found in the lunar soil make the separation
process easier. These ilmenite grains average 53% TiO2, 44% FeO, 2% MgO and 1%
of impurities.
Although utile: TiO2(titanium dioxide) is more desirable,
ilmenite is also considered to be a commercial ore for producing titanium which
we consider to use in the process of building the space settlement. Ilmenite
minerals also trap solar wind hydrogen very well, so that processing of
ilmenite will also produce hydrogen, a rare element on the Moon which can be
used on the space station in the combustion cells.
Ilmenite is not found in large quantities on Earth’s crust,
but in lunar soil the purity and quantity
of this mineral is significant.
Iron
Iron is an often encountered metal source on the Moon. It
is obtained in the processing of ilmenite (see titanium above). Free iron grains
also exist, and they can be extracted in an easy manner, by using magnets.
The Lunar mineral composition is shown below:
|
Mineral |
Avg. Abundance from Eight Samples |
|
SiO2 |
44.60% |
|
Al2O3 |
16.49% |
|
TiO2 |
0.036% |
|
Cr2O3 |
0.30% |
|
FeO |
13.47% |
|
MnO |
0.18% |
|
MgO |
9.04% |
|
CaO |
11.97% |
|
Na2O |
0.43% |
|
K2O |
0.18% |
|
P2O5 |
0.11% |
|
S |
10.63% |
Lunar
Mineral Composition
Lunar Ice
Sunlight doesn’t reach the lunar poles, because of the moon’s
inclination of the rotation axis, almost 1.6 degrees. The temperatures inside
these craters are around 50K(-223 Centigrade or -370 Fahrenheit).
The south pole is a lot poorer in water than the north
one(50% more than in the south pole).
The first estimative figures of hydrogen, which existed in
water ice: 0.3 to1% in 5000 to 20000 square kilometers at the south pole and
10000 to 50000 square kilometers at the north pole. After looking deeper into
this problem, a theoretical quantity of six billion metric tons of water is
concentrated in a small number of lunar polar craters.
Of course almost pure water is expected to be found at a
very low temperature, this giving an extremely interesting problem: mining ice
water.
The material must be resistant in this cold situation, but the properties of the material must be
exceptional.
The mining surface must be heated before starting the
mining. The mining of the material must be slow, and the vehicle and it’s
attachments must be warmed also.
Another option is to enclose an area an to heat the water
there, bring it to the state of vapor, and then collect it into pipes and
transport it into tanks.
The south pole is permanently kept in shadow, but the north
one isn’t. It has shadowed areas, and the options of mining sites (sunlit rims
of a polar crater) are many.
c. Asteroid
resources
While the Moon's gravity field is one-sixth that of
Earth's, it is still enormously higher than that of an asteroid. This will make
taking materials from asteroids a lot cheaper than launching them from the
Moon. Still we must consider only bodies that have been nudged by the
gravitational pull of nearby planets into orbits that cause them to enter the
Earth's vicinity (Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)). In terms of orbital elements, NEOs
are asteroids and comets with a perihelion
distance less than 1.3 times the Earth-Sun distance. However, the vast
majority of NEOs are asteroids, called Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). NEAs are
subdivided into the Aten, Apollo, and Amor groups. The ones of interest for the
construction of the orbital colony are those that have a high metal content and
a high volatile content. The carbonaceous chondrites fit this description.
These asteroids can contain sizable amounts of high quality metal ore, and
significant deposits of volatile compounds, particularly water and carbon. The
C1 and C2 types of carbonaceous chondrites are particularly suitable for our
purposes and will be one of the main sources of building materials. The
composition of the C1 and C2 types are summarized below.
Asteroid
composition
|
Mineral |
C Chondrite Class C1 |
Carbonaceous Chondrite Class C2 |
|
Fe |
.1 |
10.Jul |
|
Ni |
0 |
01.Apr |
|
Co |
0 |
.11 |
|
C |
1.9-3.0 |
01.Apr |
|
H20 |
12 |
05.Jul |
|
S |
2 |
01.Mar |
|
FeO |
22 |
15.Apr |
|
SiO2 |
28 |
33.8 |
|
MgO |
20 |
23.Aug |
|
AlO3 |
02.Jan |
02.Apr |
|
Na20 |
0.3 |
0.55 |
|
K2O |
0.04 |
0.04 |
|
P2O5 |
0.23 |
0.28 |
3. Material exploiting
and processing
The different kinds of raw materials needed for building
the space settlement will have to be efficiently exploited and processed with
minimum effort and energy consume. That is why we must consider only the most
reliable technologies for obtaining metals from lunar and asteroid ores.
a. Magnetic
separation
Magnetic separation is a procedure used to obtain free
metals from the ores found on asteroids and other celestial bodies.
Asteroids are rich in free nickel-iron rocks, which are
also found on the surface of the Moon but in smaller quantities (which are
traces of old asteroid impacts).
The process is approximately the same on both sources (moon
and asteroid):

The first step is the grinding of the rock, and then the smaller
particles are put through magnetic fields to separate de silicates from the
nickel-iron grains. This last procedure, after repeating this last process the
nickel iron grains achieves a high percentage of purity. Material is dropped
onto magnetic drums. The silicates and weakly magnetic particles don’t stick to
the drums, but the magnetic ones do until they are scraped off the magnet. The
centrifugal grinder consists of a very rapidly spinning wheel that accelerates
material down its spikes against an impact surface. The impurities remaining on
the magnet surface are eliminated from the metal particles stuck on the
magnets’ surface.
An efficient detail is that of giving the drums a high
speed, high enough to flatten metal granules on impact. The centrifugal
grinding must be used again before advancing and repeating the process of
magnetic separation. Most of the shattered impurities will be small quantities
of little silicate granules which could be sieved out.
This method can also be used to separate minerals with weak
magnetic proprieties. This is an adaptation of
the process used on Earth, the difference being that a lower gravity
found in space could determine a greater magnetic beneficiation.
Magnetic permeability
There are three types of magnetic proprieties.
Paramagnetic materials are those who attract the lines of a
magnetic field, become polarized, and in consequence attracted. Those who repel
the lines are called diamagnetic, and the third type of substance is the one
who isn’t affected by magnetic lines. Paramagnetic materials can also be
Ferro-magnetic or feebly magnetic.
In conclusion, the main principle of magnetic separation is
the different magnetic permeability of minerals.
b. Thermal
separation
This process is used in extracting volatiles elements and
compounds from asteroids, where they are often found.
The solar oven is a chamber heated by means of solar heat.
At high temperatures, the volatiles leave the material. In space conditions
(windless space and no gravity), the oven mirrors can be made out of aluminum
foil. The gasses are captured and guided into pipes who take them into chambers
situated in low temperatures (space shadow, no sun). The chambers are put in a
series, the farthest being the coldest one. In this manner water is able to
condense in the first one, and the other gasses float and condense in the next
ones.
In this way, we can obtain rocket fuel, in the form of
oxygen and hydrogen separated from the gaseous mixture. It is also possible to
obtain a hydrogen-carbon compound which is used as fuel, methane gas (CH4):
C + 2H2 => CH4.
The chambers used for the storage of low temperature solid
gasses can be manufactured from the free nickel iron metal. The solar oven can
be used to melt the metals in space. The tanks don’t need a high pressure,
because the gasses are frozen solid in space.
c. Electrostatic
separation
The first step in this type of separation is the separation
of material pieces of the same size. This separation can be done by sieving by screens,
and consequently passed through grinders, and sieved for a second time, in
order to achieve uniformity.
The second step is using static electricity, charging the
mineral grains and separating them by passing them through an electric field.
This separation method is using the principle that different minerals have
different electrostatic affinities, more exactly each mineral absorbs a
different quantity of charge, depending on structure and composition. The
material must pass this process for a few times, for obtaining a better
separation of the minerals. This process doesn’t alter the mineral in any way.
It offers only separation.

The electrical charge can be made in several methods:
This choice must be made depending on what type on mineral
we wish to separate, each mineral having a different response to different
methods and working conditions.
The separated material is put aside in special
compartments. It is called the “concentrate”, and the output is called
“tailing”.
This type of separation is used in obtaining the separation
of not only one mineral. We can use more than one compartment, and the
streaming material will split in multiple streams, depending on the charge they
possess and the type on interaction with the magnetic field.
Space vacuum increases the speed and rate of this process,
lacking wind, and giving the possibility of creating stronger energetic fields
(10 times stronger) than in Earth’s Atmosphere. Also the lack of moisture is a
factor that speeds up this process. Water makes the grains stick together, and
also changes the minerals’ electrical properties (conductivity), reducing differences between minerals (This
process on Earth is preceded by roasting the mineral probe). The low gravity on
the Moon (1/6 of Earth’s gravity) also helps the separation process by
decreasing the speed of the separated grains’ fall and as such, increasing the
speed of the separation.
For the Solar Power Satellite (SPS), the General Dynamics
report states: "The presence of large quantities of fine glass particles
in lunar regolith is particularly relevant to the recommended use of foamed
glass as primary structure for the SPS solar array and antennas. Foamed glass
is commercially manufactured from fine particles of ground glass by the
addition of small quantities of foaming agents and the application of heat.
Thus, beneficiation of lunar regolith to recover the large amounts of fine
glass particles may permit the direct production of all of the foamed glass
needed for the SPS with few or no intermediate steps required to prepare the
glass for foaming."
This method can also be applied building the space
settlement.
d. Electrophoresis
Electrophoresis for the separation of minerals can be
achieved only in no gravity conditions. It is a simple process, but it’s
performances are better than the electrostatic one, but also a much slower one.
The schematic shown below explains how the process works.

There is a chamber filled with a fluid. An electric field
is created between the two opposite walls by charging them with different
charges: one positive, and one negative. The mineral probe is put into the
fluid. The probe’s grains will float facing the no gravity conditions. The
electric charges created by the electric field passing through the two opposite
walls are collected by the minerals’ molecules. In this manner the minerals
will migrate through the fluid to the position between other types of minerals
(two isoelectric materials a higher and a lower one). Each mineral forms a
plane of substance parallel to the walls and to the other minerals’ planes.
Earth’s gravity creates a large disadvantage, because it
creates convection currents, and at the same time, gravitational settling. This
was the reason why some electrophoretic experiments which were unsuccesful on
Earth have been succeded in space, thanks to the lack of gravity.
One of the most exploitable properties of lunar soil is the
wide range of isoelectric points of the minerals. No two minerals have the same
isoelectric point or, in practically all cases, even similar isoelectric
points. This property of lunar soil makes it an ideal candidate for
electrophoretic separation; it means that for a given suspension material each
mineral phase will separate and form a discrete band within the electrophoretic
chamber.
e. Electrolysis
of minerals
Electrolysis is the procedure decomposing a material in
compounds, using a voltage. Electrolysis of minerals separated metal, oxygen,
and/or their oxides. There are two electrodes: the anode (+) where the
oxidation reaction occurs, and the cathode (-),
where the reduction reaction occurs.
The selection of electrodes and voltages and even additives
are extremely important in order to achieve the wanted result. The ore is
melted. The electrodes are put in. The metals go to the negative electrode
(cathode) and oxygen to the anode (+).
The process can be written in the following way for ilmenite.
Total electrolysis of ilmenite: FeTiO3
3* | anode (+) O2- => O0
(gas)+2e- [oxidation]
cathode (-) Fe2+ +2e-
=> Fe0 (liquid)[reduction]
Ti 4+ +4e-
=> Ti0 (solid)[reduction]
Total process:
3O2- + Fe2+ + Ti4+ => 3O0 + Fe0 + Ti0
Aluminum, calcium, sodium , potassium and manganese will be
liberated in vapor form, iron and silicium may be liquid or solid depending on
the bath’s temperature, and
titanium will be
deposited under a solid form.
f. Vacuum
distillation
This is a process strongly related to the electrolysis. The
resultant metals in the process of electrolysis are heated to the different
liquefaction or boiling point to extract each one separately.
By means of the last two processes oxygen can be extracted
from lunar soil.
g. Glass
fabrication
Lunar and asteroidal materials can be used in the process
of obtaining a great variety of glass structures: fiberglass, foamed glass,
clear glass, and also materials used for the fabrication of walls, pipes and
other construction materials.
On the lunar surface natural glass particles are more often
found than on Earth’s surface, because of the lack of water (H2O)
existing on our planet’s satellite. Lunar glass can be separated from other
minerals by using electrostatic beneficiation.
Glass produced on earth is heavily contaminated by water
vapor in the atmosphere, this contributing to the low mechanical proprieties (britteling material,
weak, and non resistant to shocks). This fact has lead to research concerning
“anhydrous glass”, manufactured in the absence of water and which can be used
in structures thanks to it’s improved mechanical proprieties.
Foamed glass is the highest resistant glass manufactured
yet, and whose mechanical proprieties make it usable in space construction.
It’s fabrication scheme can be seen below:

Source: General Dynamics/Convair report for NASA and US
Dept. of Energy on making solar power
satellites from lunar materials. Slightly reworded by Mark Prado
Strong mechanically glass-ceramics can be manufactured by
using FeO(from the lunar soils rich in this substance). The glass has a dark
colour. Colourless glass can be manufactured by using anorthite (CaTiO3),
with small additions of CaO or SiO2. This kind of glass is resistant
to large changes of temperature, the expansion coefficient is a lot less than
in other types of glasses.
Glasses, will be
produced in the process of high speed cooling of melted material, to create a different
crystalline structure. In order to obtain a higher resistant glass foamed glass
will be reinforced with nickel-iron steel, so that structures made out of this
material could support a wider range of tension and compression. To withstand
radiation, Pb2+ ions must be introduced in the process of glass
fabrication.
h. Generating plastic and rubber
Laminates and rubber are essential building materials,
without which the interior layout of the Settlement will be impossible to
achieve. Both plastics and rubber are light, flexible and durable, improving
the functionality and esthetics of the different compartments of the Colony.
There are two possibilities for generating rubber and
plastic. The first one is using Carbon to create carbochain polymers; the
second involves the processing of Silicon. Both methods have their advantages
and disadvantages.
The Carbon based products are much more durable and
flexible than those based on Silicon. Transforming Carbon and Carbon composites
into plastic entails a long row of chemical processes, each of them with its
own coefficient of efficiency. The major impediment is the lack of organic
matter (which is known to contain great amounts of Carbon) on both Moon and
NEOs. The insignificant amounts of Carbon found on the Carbonaceous Chondrite
Class C2 asteroids are not a reliable source of raw materials for this kind of
composites. As carrying organic matter from Earth isn’t an economically
feasible option, we must consider creating rubber and plastic from Silicon
based composites. Still small amounts of Carbon and water vapors can be used in
generating the strictly needed high endurance rubbers. The process is shown
below:
The resulted hydrocarbon composite contains
is the most suitable
hydrocarbon for generating rubber and plastic. Therefore we must disassociate
it from the rest of the mixture.
![]()
We can resume the whole chemical process to a more simple
form:
Hydrocarbon mixture![]()
The separation of the different hydrocarbons contained in
the raw composite can be achieved by liquefying the initial mixture and than distilling
it.
As we said, the most efficient way of creating plastic and
rubber is obtaining them from Silicon, which can be extracted in huge
quantities from both Moon and NEOs. More exactly, we will use silanes, which
are analogous to hydrocarbons. As the basic building block of hydrocarbons is
the methane (CH4), that for silanes is silane (SiH4). The
main structure of the compounds will be SiH3-(SiH2)n-SiH3.
Silicons can be prepared in more than one way. The most
commonly used method is reacting chlorsilane with water. After condensing, the
obtained hydroxyl intermediate will form a polymer –type structure.

Alkoxysilanes, chlorosilanes and other silicone precursors
can also be used for obtaining polymer type structures. The chemical process
involves the reaction of elemental silicone with an alkyl halide: Si + RX →
RnSiX4-n.
Raw silicon rubbers will be cured using different
peroxides. For improving the poor tensile strength of silicones we will use
reinforce fillers, such as silica in the form of silica fume or even carbon
black. It is known that silicones have better fire resistant properties than
other types of rubbers. Still we can improve this quality by adding flame
retardants such as aluminium trihydrate or zinc compounds. Heat stability can
be achieved by adding ferric oxides. As we must also consider esthetics,
different organometallic compounds can be used as pigments.
The main advantages of this type of rubbers are the good
thermal conductivity, the ability to repel water, the constancy of properties
on a large temperature scale, the excellent resistance to oxygen, ozone and
sunlight, the good electrical insulation, the low toxicity and low chemical
reactivity, the good flexibility and the anti-adhesive properties. The good
thermal stability does not allow properties such as volume, resistivity, power
factor and dielectric strength to be affected by the different changes in
temperature. Silicons are flexible at low temperatures and tend to stiffen at
higher temperatures.
Silicons will have multiple uses onboard the Settlement, including applications in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and medicine.
WebWork:
Andrei Dan Costea, Flaviu Valentin
Barsan
If you have any questions please contact us.
