Session: 03-09-01: Materials for Extreme Environments

Paper Number: 152048

152048 - Advanced Materials Creation From Local Resources in Extreme Environments 

As NASA looks to create a long-term human presence on the surface of the Moon and Mars, how can we ensure those living in extra-terrestrial environments can extract the necessities of life from available resources? The extreme environment of outer space poses unique challenges for sustaining human life. With the cost to launch a kilogram of material aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket over $2,900, it is unrealistic to launch all the required Earth-generated materials to build a permanent habitat to sustain human life on the Lunar or Martian surface. There is an urgent need to develop methodologies for in-situ resource utilization that autonomous rovers can utilize to help build habitats on the Lunar surface to support a long-term human presence on the Moon and one day Mars. When we can develop methods of material generation using only locally available resources on the Moon and Mars, we can translate those technologies back to Earth and modify those rovers to be deployed in remote, hard-to-reach locations guaranteeing the protection of human life everywhere.

My long-term goal is to create methodologies for extracting polymeric materials from locally available resources to create advanced composite materials for 3D printed habitats. The overall objective of this project is to understand the compatibility of regolith, or the unconsolidated rock and dust found above bedrock, with commercial polymers that could be created in-situ. My central hypothesis is that pretreatment of regolith will provide advanced composite materials for 3D printing that have a non-porous surface finish and have comparable material properties to conventionally created specimens. This hypothesis comes from preliminary data that created a porous-rough surface when parts were 3D printed from untreated Martian regolith filled polypropylene composites. The rationale for this work stems from a preliminary analysis of the regolith constituents that indicates the pretreatment of regolith can prevent individual constituents from thermally decomposing and generating oxygen that leads to a poor surface finish in an open to atmosphere manufacturing process such as 3D printing.

My research group has been focusing on the impact the addition of various regolith simulants has on commercially available polymers. We first started 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 my group investigated the addition of 10, 20, 30, and 40 wt% regolith in polypropylene. To further understand how the location of building sites on the Martian surface would impact the mechanical properties of the in-situ created materials, my team utilized four different Martian simulants developed at Exolith Labs. The global Martian regolith simulant is called MGS-1 and simulates the Rocknest windblown soils on Mars. MGS-1 enriched with smectite is designated MGS-1C. MGS-1S is MGS-1 enriched with polyhydrated sulfate gypsum. Finally, JEZ-1 simulates regolith found in the Jezero Crater deltas.

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 my team came across in our 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 extrudite as it exited the extruder on the printer. We are currently exploring the impact of Lunar regolith in commercially available polymers along with ways to improve the surface finish of the 3D printed parts.

Presenting Author: Jessica Vold North Dakota State University

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Jessica Vold is the Engineering Entrepreneurship & Innovation Faculty member at North Dakota State University. She serves the entire College of Engineering teaching entrepreneurship to scientists and engineers. She is also an Assistant Professor teaching materials, mechanics, and introductory level engineering courses out of her home department, Mechanical Engineering. Jessica spent several years working for small businesses spun out of research at NDSU prior to joining the university in 2019. Her research focuses on advanced materials for a variety of applications including biobased materials, advanced composite materials, and materials for additive manufacturing.