Advanced Materials Creation From Local Resources in Extreme Environments

Abstract The work of this project has been focusing on the impact the addition of various regolith simulants has on commercially available polymers. It first started with working with Martian regolith simulant, as the Martian atmosphere has theoretical paths to in-situ polymerization for several polymers including polypropylene. To limit the amount of polymer needed to create viable building materials the addition of 10, 20, 30, and 40 wt% regolith in polypropylene was investigated. To further understand how the location of building sites on the Martian surface would impact the mechanical properties of the in-situ created materials, four different Martian simulants developed at Space Resource Technologies were studied. The work then moved onto studying the impacts of Lunar regolith simulant on biobased polymers that could be generated from plant matter once a human presence is established on the Lunar surface. Four different Lunar simulants developed at Space Resource Technologies were analyzed. Additive manufacturing trials were conducted on a re:3D Terabot X pellet fed large area additive manufacturing printer with a roughly one cubic meter print volume. The biggest hurdle the team came across in the initial study was the surface finish of the 3D printed parts. The injection molded specimens had a smooth surface finish. The 3D printed specimens on the other hand had a very rough surface finish and the team noticed significant foaming of the extradite as it exited the extruder on the printer. On going work is currently exploring ways to improve the surface finish of the 3D printed parts.