Does anyone know where I can find information on the hardness of various lunar
rock types?
lunar highland material. Given that lunar stone is literally everywhere on the
surface of the moon, it would stand to reason that it would make an ideal
building material. All that we would really need in order to fashion stone
blocks, is a stone cutting machine and a sintering machine capable of producing
Al2O3 cutting disks. Lunar habitats could be fashioned almost entirely from
lunar stone. Pressurised structures would need to keep under a great deal of
compression. I suppose that the ideal approach would be to build a stone
structure at the bottom of a rille or deep crater and then cover it with a deep
layer of compacted lunar soil from above. Stone structures are excellent
candidates for telerobotic construction, because they are so simple in design.
Keeping the cutting surface cool will be more challenging on Luna than it
is on Earth. On Earth, water is often sprayed on the cutting surface
during the cutting process. On Luna, only radiative cooling will be
possible in vacuo, which is a much less efficient heat-transfer mechanism.
to think about pursuing lunarcrete as a building material rather than hard
rock.
Ron Menich
hollroa@...
Please respond to
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Does anyone know where I can find information on the hardness of various
lunar
rock types?
Stone cutting disks can be made from aluminium oxide, which is abundant
in
lunar highland material. Given that lunar stone is literally everywhere on
the
surface of the moon, it would stand to reason that it would make an ideal
building material. All that we would really need in order to fashion stone
blocks, is a stone cutting machine and a sintering machine capable of
producing
Al2O3 cutting disks. Lunar habitats could be fashioned almost entirely from
lunar stone. Pressurised structures would need to keep under a great deal
of
compression. I suppose that the ideal approach would be to build a stone
structure at the bottom of a rille or deep crater and then cover it with a
deep
layer of compacted lunar soil from above. Stone structures are excellent
candidates for telerobotic construction, because they are so simple in
design.
>>>Keeping the cutting surface cool will be more challenging on Luna than it
is on Earth. On Earth, water is often sprayed on the cutting surface
during the cutting process. On Luna, only radiative cooling will be
possible in vacuo, which is a much less efficient heat-transfer mechanism.
to think about pursuing lunarcrete as a building material rather than hard
rock.>>>
How is 'lunarcrete' made?
I've heard some suggestions that a mixture of sulphur and regolith could be
used as a building material. Upon heating, the sulphur melts and polymerises
into a hard solid.
>
> Does anyone know where I can find information on the hardness of various lunar
> rock types?
>
corresponding terrestrial minerals and rocks.
Defintions (taught to me in high school):
Note, a ROCK is comprised of several different types of MINERAL
crystals, bound together by a matrix.
Each mineral has a different hardness.
For example the rock granite containts feldspar, quartz, and other
minerals (which I have forgotten),
each of which has a different hardness. The rock itself can have an
aggregate hardness if it is homogenous enough.
Geology text books are full of hardness numbers, it is a common method
of identifying minerals and rocks in the field when there is no
laboratory immediately available.
My understanding of lunar geology goes like this:- all the minerals
found on the Moon have already been seen on Earth. Some lunar rocks
are identical. Some lunar rocks are different, but only differ in the
proportions of the minerals when compared to Earth rocks.
we could do the cutting at night,use a slower cutting speed,or perhaps use
laser cutting tools!I'm not familiar with the chemistry of lunarcrete,but it
sounds like a good mortar, from my understanding even concretes are aqueous
or at least need some other fluid media? Incan stone-work with precision
cutting ,Frank Lloyedean fitting ;integral form-function design we could
even build pyramids on Mars or Earth !? Couldn't we? feel free to contact
me at prestonsmith@...
> Keeping the cutting surface cool will be more challenging on Luna than it
> is on Earth. On Earth, water is often sprayed on the cutting surface
> during the cutting process. On Luna, only radiative cooling will be
> possible in vacuo, which is a much less efficient heat-transfer mechanism.
>
> I'm not well-versed in these issues, but I suspect this might be one
reason
> to think about pursuing lunarcrete as a building material rather than hard
> rock.
>
> Ron Menich
>
> hollroa@...
ssi_list@...
Lunar stone cutting
> Please respond to
> ssi_list
>
> Does anyone know where I can find information on the hardness of various
> lunar
> rock types?
>
> Stone cutting disks can be made from aluminium oxide, which is abundant
> in
> lunar highland material. Given that lunar stone is literally everywhere on
> the
> surface of the moon, it would stand to reason that it would make an ideal
> building material. All that we would really need in order to fashion stone
> blocks, is a stone cutting machine and a sintering machine capable of
> producing
> Al2O3 cutting disks. Lunar habitats could be fashioned almost entirely
from
I was talking to a friend in combustion engineering last night and one
of the topics was how do quarries cut stone. According to him, they use
regular wire moving at about 650 feet / sec that burns through the rock.
http://www.InnerTransit.org (homebase for collaborative engineering)
> I was talking to a friend in combustion engineering last night and one
> of the topics was how do quarries cut stone. According to him, they use
> regular wire moving at about 650 feet / sec that burns through the rock.
luna low vapor pressure oil could be substituted for water to take care
of cooling and lubrication. I think a rather more tricky issue is to find
large enough deposits of stone that haven't been pulverized by 4 billion
years of meteorite bombardment.
......Andrew
Andrew Case
acase@...
Institute for Plasma Research
University of Maryland, College Park |
> I think a rather more tricky issue is to find
> large enough deposits of stone that haven't been pulverized by 4 billion
> years of meteorite bombardment.
bedrock in most places (a few meters), and the Apollo astronauts found
large boulders and even some exposed bedrock in places. Plus as they
found from taking core samples, the "loose" regolith packs together
enough to provide some strong resistance within 1 meter of the surface,
so cutting through it might not be as easy as you would expect. The
lunar surface is irregular and uneven enough to provide quite a variety
of rock structures to work with.
Arthur (apsmith@...
>>>Actually, in the mare areas you don't have to dig too far to reach
bedrock in most places (a few meters), and the Apollo astronauts found
large boulders and even some exposed bedrock in places. Plus as they
found from taking core samples, the "loose" regolith packs together
enough to provide some strong resistance within 1 meter of the surface,
so cutting through it might not be as easy as you would expect. The
lunar surface is irregular and uneven enough to provide quite a variety
of rock structures to work with.
Does anyone have any figures for the density of mare rock? A pressurised stone
structure will need to be kept under a great deal of compression.
Tony
> I was talking to a friend in combustion engineering last night and one
> of the topics was how do quarries cut stone. According to him, they use
> regular wire moving at about 650 feet / sec that burns through the rock.
its way through the rock.
Alternatively, we could use a regular aluminium oxide cutting wheel within a
closed, pressurised environment. Regular water could be used to keep the surface
cool. The atmosphere and grindings could be processed to retrieve much of the
water.
Tony