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Working on the Moon
Editor's Letter
There’s a concrete True Blue connection to NASA’s plan to establish a human settlement in space by 2035.
NASA selected the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to lead the federal agency’s lunar habitat project, a series of increasingly complex missions that will culminate in rocket flights from the moon to Mars.
Marshall in turn aligned with an elite group of commercial and academic partners nationwide to accomplish the mission—arguably the most ambitious construction project in human history.
Among them is MTSU’s renowned Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program, the oldest and biggest of its kind at a higher education institution in the nation.
CIM is taking the lead on the development of construction materials made from moon soil to build needed infrastructure, including habitats, landing pads, roadways, berms, and blast shields.
Said another way, MTSU’s concrete program is developing “moon beams” to build in outer space.
Ferrying loads of construction materials to the moon is financially and environmentally dubious. In fact, the only cargo NASA plans to send to the moon for the project is a large umbrella-like structure to create an atmosphere in which astronauts can work (remember, gravity on the moon is weak) and a 3D printer to print structures.
All the raw materials needed for construction will be mined from the surface of the moon.
MTSU is busily testing construction material made with manufactured lunar dust, or regolith, created by the Colorado School of Mines. (Apollo missions more than 50 years ago gave scientists a clear sense of the makeup of lunar soil.)
CIM’s goal? Perfect the use of the regolith to build failproof “concrete” for lunar construction.
CIM has already produced “lunar beams” in campus labs, using simulant soil the exact composition chemically and in particle size as lunar soil.
What’s different about these earthly moon beams? The regolith is very fine, almost powdery, compared to the mix of large rocks, small rocks, and powder used in concrete. And unlike concrete, material made with regolith can’t be reinforced with steel. CIM solved that problem by printing latticework to give it some rigidity.
Early mixes were too soupy to print. Eventually, CIM got the consistency right. Then, when it did another print and the regolith material settled, the moon beams began cracking deep into the structure.
The quest continues. Working in partnership with Drake State Technical and Community College in Huntsville—which has a concrete printer—CIM is working to embed structural health monitors inside its next batches of moon beams.
Aligned with MTSU’s core mission to prepare students for the jobs of the future, CIM’s involvement in the moon beams project provides learning experiences for students. NASA grants currently pay four CIM students to serve as interns.
I’ve always thought an MTSU education was out of this world. Now, it truly is!
—Drew Ruble
