Fibres made of the Moon

MoonFibre is a research project of two institutes from RWTH Aachen University, the Institute for Textile Technology and Institute of Structural Mechanics and Lightweight Design. The aim of the MoonFibre project is to create fibres from lunar regolith on the Moon itself. A small, modular automated and highly robust spinning facility is to be build and used to produce fibres and different fibre based material to be used on diverse application for the lunar settlement. This way exploration and exploitation of the Moon will become more financially viable and more sustainable.As the so called New Space age beginns, mankind’s interest is being shifted from LEO towards exploring Mars and our closest celestial neighbour – the Moon. However, the transport of payloads into space, e.g. to carry out research missions or to set up and supply manned lunar stations, poses immense economic challenges in addition to the technological tasks to be solved. Moon raw materials in the form of regoliths are suitable for the production of habitat building materials and thus the reduction of freight and costs during missions into space. MoonFibre are very versatile and could support the implementation of a lunar habitat in various ways: They can be used for structural support of 3D-printed structures, thermal and acoustic insulation or as a substrate for hydroponic agriculture.

iBOSS (Intelligent Building Blocks for On-orbit Satellite Servicing) is a project funded by the DLR. In the context of the iBOSS project standardized building blocks are developed, that altogether form a maintainable modular spacecraft. The iBOSS design provides a great flexibility in satellite development and productions while enabling on-orbit servicing and assembly. As one of the key partners of the iBOSS project, the SLA is currently developing the iSSI (intelligent Space System Interface) while also qualifying developed structures in accordance with current space standards and refining structural components and mechanisms. In the context of IGLUNA 2020, we will use the iBOSS technology for exploration of celestial bodies. One of the main goals of our project is to miniaturize the MoonFibre spinning plant, so it can fit into an iBLOCK. Using the iSSI, our spinning plant could be easily transported to production sites by autonomous rovers and coupled to power supply infrastructure.