Title:

Lunar Regolith Effects on Sand Casted Material Properties

In-space manufacturing will be a part of the next generation of engineering and space exploration. However, sending payload to the moon is expensive, costing about $10,000 per pound. And building a base on the moon that sustains human life would cost approximately $20 billion to $30 billion. Due to these prohibitive costs, source material supply is limited, but if supply needs can be reduced then repair options can be significantly increased. One way to decrease source material needs is by creating a metal mixture utilizing in-situ materials on the moon. The goal of this research is to gather data as to how adding simulated lunar regolith affects the mechanical properties of bismuth-alloy metal. This research will be conducted by sand casting ASTM E8 tensile specimens with varying percentages of lunar regolith by volume. The tensile tests will be performed by the MTS Landmark with a displacement rate of 0.5mm/s. Once extensive data is collected, we hope that this can help us conduct the same research in the future with more commonly used metals, such as aluminum.

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