LEGO bricks constructed from meteorite dust, test run for a moon base

It is hard to imagine that the building materials for a planned lunar base would first have to be transported to Earth's satellite at great expense. After all, every pound counts when launching from the Earth's surface.

The problem is the lunar regolith, a colorful mixture of various metal oxides that are only available as fine dust. To test how this material can be used, ESA researchers have ground a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite into comparable dust.

With the help of an additional composite material and a 3D printer, building blocks were formed from it that are modeled on the well-known LEGO brick - but made of meteorite dust and not plastic.

The biggest advantage of the small bricks has also been adopted. They can be clicked together like their earthly counterparts. This allows quick and uncomplicated construction to explore the possibilities of the material.

After all, the flexibility and durability of the bricks are well known. ESA engineers and scientists now have sufficient visual material to consider suitable strategies for the construction of a functional and stable base on the moon.

There were already plans for this in the 1970s and 1980s. NASA and SpaceX are currently planning a permanent base for sometime after 2030 in order to be able to launch from there to Mars more easily and, above all, at a higher launch speed.

And there, too, building blocks could be printed from dust. Until then, some of ESA's LEGO bricks from space can be viewed in selected LEGO stores.

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