The team, which included researchers from NASA and Washington State University, worked with a 3-D printer that melts powdered feedstock with lasers and then layers the melted powder into solid structures. Real lunar regolith is too precious to melt down, so they fed the printer with imitation lunar soil—a close chemical match to the real thing.
In the demo, the researchers produced cylinders of various sizes and reported that the melted regolith was free of cracks. The research appears in the Rapid Prototyping Journal. [Vamsi Krishna Balla et al., First demonstration on direct laser fabrication of lunar regolith parts]
The printed parts are still a bit rough around the edges, though—they resemble rusty lengths of iron. One of the team members remarked that “It doesn’t look fantastic, but you can make something out of it.”
—John Matson
