China News Service, Shanghai, January 20 (Reporter Zheng Yingying) Can fiber be used to build a house on the moon?
Zhu Meifang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Donghua University, said at a popular science forum in Shanghai on the 20th that "lunar soil fibers can support plans for future lunar bases."
On January 20, the Shanghai Science Popularization Forum’s first lecture in 2024 invited Academician Zhu Meifang to talk about the “Journey to the Stars” of fiber.
(Photo courtesy of Shanghai Science and Technology Museum)
On the same day, the first lecture of the Shanghai Science Popularization Forum in 2024 invited Academician Zhu Meifang to talk about the "Journey to the Stars" of fiber.
On December 17, 2020, China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe successfully returned to Earth carrying 1,731 grams of lunar "native products". This was the first time that humans collected lunar samples after more than 40 years, and also made China the third country to successfully collect lunar samples. s country.
According to reports, researchers from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered natural glass fibers for the first time in the lunar soil of Chang'e 5. This discovery confirmed the feasibility of harvesting local materials on the lunar surface and using lunar soil to process and produce glass building materials.
Zhu Meifang introduced to the young audience that the team had obtained some lunar samples and was conducting research. "We obtained the lunar soil, analyzed it, and found that its structure is similar to that of basalt on Earth."
She pointed out that lunar basalt fiber is a key material for the construction of lunar bases using in-situ resources.
Zhu Meifang revealed that on the one hand, the team made fiber materials by imitating lunar soil, and will transport them to space through rockets in the future; however, the weight of "bringing them up" is limited after all. On the other hand, researchers hope to use the in-situ resources of the moon to manufacture fiber materials in the future. Key Materials.
The best option for building a lunar base is to use in-situ resources for construction.
Zhu Meifang told the young audience that in the future, the soil on the moon can be turned into good materials, and then these materials can be used to build houses on the moon.
At the "Ke's Fun" winter vacation weekend camp that day, students could also learn about mesoporous materials, fiber materials and other materials at the "Curiosity Fair".
(over)