3D printers could use Moon rocks, say scientists

In future the Moon colonists will use the lunar rocks to create tools or spare parts, according to a study.

Many hundreds of Moon rocks were brought back from the Apollo missions

The US researchers have used a 3D printer to make small objects out of melted simulated lunar rocks.

They say the technique could help future missions to minimize the weight and the expense of carrying materials into space as a digital file would be enough.

But one expert says such a printer would have to be extremely precise.

In 2010, NASA asked a team from Washington State University to see whether it was possible to use lunar rocks for 3D printing.

It supplied the researchers with simulated Moon rocks, or lunar regolith simulant, containing silicon, aluminium, calcium, iron and magnesium oxides.

Many hundreds of kilograms of Moon rocks were collected during NASA missions, but the scientists did not use them because they are considered a national treasure in the US.

Lunar regolith simulant is commonly used for research purposes at NASA.

"It sounds like science fiction, but now it's really possible," said Prof Amit Bandyopadhyay, the lead author of the study, published in the Rapid Prototyping Journal.

His team created simple 3D shapes by sending a digital file or scan to a printer which then built the items layer by layer out of melted lunar regolith, fed via a carefully controlled nozzle to form a shape. The process is known as "additive manufacturing".

 A laser was used to melt the material.

"As long as you can have additive manufacturing set up, you may be able to scoop up and print whatever you want. It's not that far-fetched," said Prof Bandyopadhyay.

The research demonstrates the latest advances in 3D printing technology, which is already in use in medicine, fashion, car manufacturing and other industries.

Sophisticated

But Prof Colin Pillinger, the scientist behind the ill-fated Beagle-2 mission to Mars, said the printer would have to be really precise to be able to fabricate complex parts that usually make up the body of a spacecraft.

"It would be nice if you could do that but I'm not sure it would work - it depends whether it is a simple mechanical component or something more complex," Prof Pillinger, who now works at the Planetary and Space Sciences department at the Open University, told BBC News.

"If you break your car on a motorway and have to replace your wheel, and you just print one it's a mechanical component, but if it's something more sophisticated like an electrical component to run your car, it's a different story.

"Of course, if you don't have to take a wheel to the Moon its great, but if it's not a mechanical part that breaks but something more sophisticated than I'm not sure it would work."

However, David Woods, author of How Apollo Flew to the Moon, was more positive.

"The important thing to consider is that the Earth has a very deep gravity well so anything you can make in situ on the Moon will save an awful lot of energy and therefore money," he said.

"So it's better to be able to live off the land. That's why scientists are so interested in water at poles, and the fact Moon dust works well with microwaves and could theoretically be used to make a paved surface if you created roads.

"Such technologies are untested but they do open up the possibility of future colonisation of the Moon, even if only for scientific purposes."

But putting the theory into practice may be some way off. A project to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2020 was cancelled by President Obama on cost grounds, though NASA still has longer-term plans for a lunar return.

Only with respect to Neil Armstrong

The first man to walk on the moon has died

"It's a small step for a man, and a great leap for mankind." If these celebrities when Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon on 20 July 1969 for the contract. Now, the first man stepped on the moon a few days ago at the age of 82, has died.

Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut (born August 5, 1930 at wapakoneta, Ohio, America), is the first person that during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969 steps on the moon. He was the first man-made ​​Earth from space.

NASA Astronaut Neil Armstrong, pilot tester, aerospace engineer, university professor, and United States Navy pilot who served America and the Korean War. After the war ended, America entered the United States Air Force and completed more than 900 flights. Armstrong graduated from Purdue University and has completed his studies at the University of Southern California.

Before he was an astronaut, was in the Air Force, United States of America. After the war, Armstrong as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and Flight 900 was an aircraft types.

Armstrong on November 20, 1956 while he was a pilot, Edwards Air Force Base, California

He graduated from Purdue University and the University of Southern California. Armstrong joined NASA in 1962 after leaving the Navy.

Neil Armstrong with X-15 flight research since 1960

NASA's first flight, the flight of Gemini 8 in 1966, was his command and became one of the few Americans who has traveled to space.

Neil Armstrong's spacesuit Gemini 8

His two spacecraft manned mission to bring David Scott.

Official photos of Neil Armstrong on Apollo missions

His second and last spaceflight, the flight of Apollo 11 mission commander and eventually, with Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969 the first landing on the moon.

Saturn 5 rocket carrying the Apollo spacecraft

Photo of the Moment: The launch of the Cape in Florida is registered Canaveral

Neil Armstrong on the moon

Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon was came, and 2 ½ hours exploring while Michael Collins to the moon in the Dial command was waiting for it.

Apollo 11 astronauts left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin

In this photo: the "Apollo Mahnskyn" And when you was on the Moon by Buzz Aldrin has been registered

Hundreds of millions of people around the world witnessed the landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon

Return aboard Gemini 8 in West Pacific

To Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Richard M. Nixon (president of United States of America), the Congressional Space Medal of President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. Neil Armstrong lives in their home on a farm in Ohio and taught at the University Cincinnati.

This photo of Armstrong with a visit to America in Congress in 2011, he has been recorded

Neil Armstrong, on 25 August 2012 at the age of 82 due to complications from surgery in a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, United States of America died. He had heart surgery a few weeks ago.

Armstrong's family after his death, the message was: We do not like him as a reluctant hero Neil knowing the navy fighter pilot, test pilot and an astronaut who served their nation.

 “While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.”

Neil Armstrong, a man with big ideas, and it was a big step. He's one of the glories of the United States and honor for science and humanity and still be viable ... God bless his soul and give him a Dear Wind.