Wall-Building Robot Considered for Constructing Blast Shields on the Moon

Living on the Moon means that rockets will be your sole mode of transportation to Earth or Mars. However, each launch will create a storm of debris. Autonomous rovers might one day be responsible for building walls to contain this mess.

During the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, astronauts retrieved parts from the Surveyor III lander, which had been on the lunar surface since early 1967.

Examination of these pieces revealed a significant issue with lunar travel: rockets transporting people and cargo to and from the surface stir up a considerable amount of regolith, which had damaged the lander. It is estimated that Moon landings can impact the lunar environment up to thousands of meters from the landing site.

Artemis Mission’s Starship HLS to Stir Up Lunar Dust, Requiring Containment

However, NASA’s Artemis mission aims to establish a colony on the Moon and will use SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS) to transport colonists between an orbiting gateway and the lunar surface.This means that rocket launches will kick up a lot of dust in the coming years, making it crucial to contain the dust to protect habitats and other sensitive equipment.

Exploring Wall-Building Around Lunar Launch and Landing Sites Using Microwave-Heated Moon Bricks and 3D-Printed Lunar Soil Structures

However, a new study led by Jonas Walther suggests a more cost-effective and efficient method for creating blast shields without transforming lunar materials. Walther, who has conducted research at ETH Zürich’s Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems and the Center for Space and Habitability in Bern, now works at Switzerland’s Venturi lab, which designs lunar rovers.

Energy-Efficient Boulder Blast Shields Proposed for Lunar Habitat Protection

Walther’s team claims that this approach would be two orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than previously suggested methods. This is because using existing boulders eliminates the need to transport materials—other than the rovers—to the lunar surface. It also avoids the need to heat or transform lunar soils into building materials.

The researchers explored the feasibility of constructing boulder blast shields in two lunar regions: the Aristarchus Plateau and the Shackleton-Henson Connecting Ridge. Their calculations focused on building shield rings with a 50-meter (164 ft) radius, a 314-meter (1,030 ft) circumference, and a 3.3-meter (10.8 ft) height. In both areas, rovers would need to travel up to 1,000 km (621 miles) to collect boulders.

Considering these factors, and allowing time for the rovers to charge and hibernate during the lunar night, the team estimates that constructing the shield wall would take a minimum of about 126 Earth days.

The team acknowledges that stacking boulders creates small gaps allowing regolith to escape, requiring filling with smaller stones, regolith, or other materials.

Despite this challenge, the researchers consider the plan worthwhile due to its potential energy savings and as part of the construction methods likely to be used on the Moon.

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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