TY - JOUR A1 - Ginés-Palomares, Juan Carlos A1 - Fateri, Miranda A1 - Kalhöfer, Eckhard A1 - Schubert, Tim A1 - Meyer, Lena A1 - Kolsch, Nico A1 - Brandic Lipinska, Monica A1 - Davenport, Robert A1 - Imhof, Barbara A1 - Waclavicek, René A1 - Sperl, Matthias A1 - Makaya, Advenit A1 - Günster, Jens T1 - Laser melting manufacturing of large elements of lunar regolith simulant for paving on the Moon N2 - The next steps for the expansion of the human presence in the solar system will be taken on the Moon. However, due to the low lunar gravity, the suspended dust generated when lunar rovers move across the lunar soil is a significant risk for lunar missions as it can affect the systems of the exploration vehicles. One solution to mitigate this problem is the construction of roads and landing pads on the Moon. In addition, to increase the sustainability of future lunar missions, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) techniques must be developed. In this paper, the use of concentrated light for paving on the Moon by melting the lunar regolith is investigated. As a substitute of the concentrated sunlight, a high-power CO2 laser is used in the experiments. With this set-up, a maximum laser spot diameter of 100 mm can be achieved, which translates in high thicknesses of the consolidated layers. Furthermore, the lunar regolith simulant EAC-1A is used as a substitute of the actual lunar soil. At the end of the study, large samples (approximately 250 × 250 mm) with interlocking capabilities were fabricated by melting the lunar simulant with the laser directly on the powder bed. Large areas of lunar soil can be covered with these samples and serve as roads and landing pads, decreasing the propagation of lunar dust. These manufactured samples were analysed regarding their ineralogical composition, internal structure and mechanical properties. KW - Regolith KW - ISRU KW - Moon KW - Laser KW - Additive manufacturing PY - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-585985 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 13 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-58598 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -