Lunar Demandite—You Gotta Make This Using Nothing but That
Publication: Earth and Space 2022
ABSTRACT
We consider whether an entire spacecraft can be constructed from lunar resources by consideration of its materials availability. We first consider what functional materials would be required to construct all the major spacecraft subsystems. We then examined each lunar mineral to determine what metals, ceramics, and glasses can be extracted. We suggest that lunar resources—with certain provisos—can indeed supply all the functional materials required to construct a spacecraft. We suggest that this could constitute a first generation ISRU capability and that a subsequent generation to extract KREEP materials would offer enhanced performance but no significantly greater capacities.
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Earth and Space 2022
Pages: 743 - 758
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Published online: Jan 5, 2023
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