Composite Material for Direct Polymerization on Moon
Kondyurin, A.; Bilek, M.
University of Sydney

A Moon base for humans was recently announced as the next major goal for the interplanetary flight space program of NASA, ESA, Russia and China. It will serve as a base for scientific and industrial activity on the nearest celestial body to Earth and will provide experience of an artificial human settlement in an environment prototypical of space bases on Mars, Venus and other planets. Human activity on the Moon will require a large size base frame to provide enough space for life support systems, water, food, air, living and working quarters for crew, scientific and industrial equipment.

The creation of a sizeable base on the Moon is possible only by way of deployable construction on the Moon surface. For this inflatable structures, which can be transported from Earth in compact containers, by existing space carriers are required. After landing the containers must be opened and the structures inflated. Inflated structure in high vacuum environments is not convenient if the materials used in the construction are not sufficiently durable. After deployment, the construction must be rigidized. We propose a convenient method of rigidization by means of a chemical reaction in a polymer matrix impregnated by fibre filler.

We have investigated the influence of high vacuum, space plasma and temperature variations relevant to the Moon surface environment on the polymerization process. We show that the direct polymerization of composite materials in a free space environment as on the Moon surface with suitable mechanical properties is possible.