Additive Manufacturing On The Moon – 3D Printing With Aluminum

With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars(1).

One of the many challenges involved is to reduce the cost of building, and maintaining, a human habitat on the Moon’s surface. Current estimates place the cost of shipping material to the Moon at $15,000 per kilogram(2).

NASA is studying the feasibility of mining aluminum on the moon. Once the process of isolating aluminum is determined, the next phase will involve using this resource as a building material. Creating products using in situ materials will dramatically reduce the cost of shipping finished products from Earth.Some universities and companies are being tasked with extracting aluminum from lunar regolith and turningthe aluminum into products, including the use of 3D printing. Stakes for tarps, or guide wires, are a test product for printing on the moon. Stakes are a simple, one piece part, and by implementing additive manufacturing techniques it is possible to reduce mass by designing an internal matrix that maintains structural integrity.Despite the apparent simplicity of a stake, identifying the optimal design for use in abrasive lunar regolith is challenging. Your objective is to design and test a stake that can be printed in aluminum that satisfies multiplebuilding requirements.