Tech

Lego-inspired “space blocks” could help scientists design lunar habitats. Here's how they work

Sending supplies to the Moon is expensive, and that won't change even when astronauts start walking on the Moon again. Every extra gram of cargo sent to the Moon is one extra gram of weight that must be lifted into space against Earth's gravity. So every extra gram of material that future lunar inhabitants can bring back from the Moon is one less gram of strain.

This dilemma is especially pronounced when it comes to building future lunar habitats. Of course, we don't know how building with lunar materials would actually work; we have very little experience doing that on Earth. But recently, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) started coming up with a very interesting idea: they first tried to process space dust into Lego-like blocks and use them to build.

“No one has ever built a structure on the moon, so it's fantastic to have the flexibility to try out all kinds of designs and building techniques with our space blocks,” ESA science officer Aidan Cowley said in a statement.

There's just one small problem: ESA's space bricks aren't actually made from lunar dust. All of the lunar samples that have been brought back to Earth by various missions are too rare and scientifically worthless to be suitable for use as bricks. Instead, ESA scientists turned to an imitation: meteorite regolith. Specifically, according to the BBC, the scientists used 4.5-billion-year-old material from a meteorite found in northwest Africa around the year 2000. Using a 3D printer, they fashioned the bricks from the meteorite dust into blocks shaped like classic 2×4 LEGO pieces.

RELATED: 'ESA Space Bricks' hit LEGO stores, could help build a real Artemis moon base

The resulting blocks aren't exactly like Lego — they're pretty rough — but they're recognizable enough. They can be stacked together like Lego, and builders can assemble them into a variety of structures. They're just as fun to play with, but they can also help scientists test building methods and determine which ones work best with the materials they have on hand.

“Understanding the science behind the limitations of these technologies has been fun and informative,” Cowley said in a statement.

The ESA Moon brick will be available to the public in select LEGO stores from June 20th to September 20th.

Sources

1/ https://Google.com/

2/ https://www.space.com/esa-lego-bricks-moon-habitats

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