Recent projects have successfully demonstrated 3D printing of Martian regolith or solar sintering applications [1]. However, to sustain crewed missions to Mars, it is necessary to better understand the effects of the Martian environment on potential construction materials [2] and rethink material cycles.
This project aims to fill this gap by investigating two innovations in the field a) developing new additive manufacturing (AM) processes under simulated Martian environmental conditions and b) creating regolith-based mixtures with recycled materials.
A new AM process shall be developed to work in simulated Martian environmental conditions (i.e., pressure and atmospheric composition). The samples are compared to samples printed under Earth’s conditions by performing analytical and mechanical measurements on both to investigate the intrinsic properties and differences to optimize the materials. A literature review shall reveal the improvement potential of materials (e.g. w.r.t structural integrity [3]). Hence, the proposed project also investigates enhancements of the structural integrity in a novel approach by reusing material brought from Earth (e.g. PET from food packaging). The applied environmental conditions might reveal new applications, due to adhesive or foam-like properties.
This project aims to develop novel regolith-based material compositions and applications, while rethinking material recycling to achieve closed-loop material cycles.
