China Tests Building Moon Base with Lunar Soil Bricks

The moon rises south of Doha, Qatar, on November 12, 2024. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP)
The moon rises south of Doha, Qatar, on November 12, 2024. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP)
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China Tests Building Moon Base with Lunar Soil Bricks

The moon rises south of Doha, Qatar, on November 12, 2024. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP)
The moon rises south of Doha, Qatar, on November 12, 2024. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP)

China is expected to push forward in its quest to build the first lunar base on Friday, launching an in-space experiment to test whether the station's bricks could be made from the Moon's own soil, AFP reported.

Brick samples will blast off aboard a cargo rocket heading for China's Tiangong space station, part of Beijing's mission to put humans on the Moon by 2030 and build a permanent base there by 2035.

It is a daunting task: any structure has to withstand huge amounts of cosmic radiation, extreme temperature variations and moonquakes, and getting building materials there in the first place is a costly procedure.

Constructing the base out of the Moon itself could be a solution to those problems, scientists from a university in central Wuhan province hope.

They have created a series of prototype bricks made of various compositions of materials found on earth, such as basalt, which mimic the properties of lunar soil.

Slivers of those test bricks will be subjected to a series of stringent tests once they reach the Tiangong space station.

"It's mainly exposure," said Zhou Cheng, a professor at Wuhan's Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

"To put it simply, we put (the material) in space and let it sit there... to see whether its durability, its performance will degrade under the extreme environment."

The temperature on the Moon can vary drastically between 180 and -190 degrees Celsius (356 to -310 degrees Fahrenheit).

Its lack of an atmosphere means it is subjected to large quantities of cosmic radiation as well as micrometeorites, while moonquakes can weaken any structure on its surface.

The exposure experiment will last three years, with samples sent back for testing every year.

- 'Good chance of success' -

Zhou's team developed their prototype bricks after analyzing soil brought back by China's Chang'e-5 probe, the world's first mission in four decades to collect Moon samples.

The resulting black bricks are three times stronger than standard bricks, he said, and interlock together without a binding agent.

The team has also worked on the "Lunar Spider", a 3D printing robot to build structures in space, some of which are conical in shape.

"In the future, our plan is definitely to use resources on-site, that is, make bricks directly from the lunar soil, and then do various construction scenarios, so we won't be bringing the materials from Earth," said Zhou.

It's "an obvious thing to try" because using materials already on the Moon would be much cheaper, said Jacco van Loon, an astrophysicist at Keele University in Britain.

"The experiments have a good chance of success, and the results will pave the way to building moonbases," he told AFP.

- Lego bricks -

Beijing is far from alone in looking to build the first lunar base.

China's planned outpost on the Moon, known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), is a joint project with Russia.

A dozen countries -- including Thailand, Pakistan, Venezuela and Senegal -- are partners in the initiative, as well as around 40 foreign organizations, according to Chinese state media.

The United States is aiming to put humans back on the Moon in 2026 and subsequently set up a station there, though its Artemis programme has already seen various delays.

As part of the US preparations, researchers at the University of Central Florida are testing potential building bricks of their own, made using 3D printers.

The European Space Agency, meanwhile, has carried out studies on how to assemble bricks based on the structure of Lego.



Lithuania Bids to Save Baltic Seals as Ice Sheets Recede

Lithuania Bids to Save Baltic Seals as Ice Sheets Recede
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Lithuania Bids to Save Baltic Seals as Ice Sheets Recede

Lithuania Bids to Save Baltic Seals as Ice Sheets Recede

The grey seals slide out of their cages into the Baltic Sea near the Lithuanian coast, swimming off to new lives imperiled by climate change, pollution and shrinking fish stocks.

The seals have been nurtured at a rehabilitation center in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda.

Survival rates for cubs in the wild can be as low as five percent, according to local scientists.

The Baltic Sea, which is shared by the European Union and Russia, rarely freezes over now, depriving seals of sanctuaries to rear their cubs, AFP reported.

"Mothers are forced to breed on land in high concentration with other seals," said Vaida Surviliene, a scientist at Vilnius University.

"They are unable to recognize their cubs and often leave them because of it," she said.

Rearing cubs ashore also leaves them exposed to humans, other wild animals, rowdy males, as well as a higher risk of diseases, according to Arunas Grusas, a biologist at the center.

Grusas began caring for seals in 1987 when he brought the first pup back to his office at the Klaipeda Sea Museum, which now oversees the new rehabilitation center built in 2022.

"We taught them how to feed themselves, got them used to the water –- they had to get comfortable with the sea, which spat them out ashore practically dying," Grusas said.

The very first cubs were placed into makeshift baths set up in an office.

"It was a sensation for us, there were practically no seals left then," Grusas said.
The scientists had to learn how to nurse the cubs back to health.

First, the cubs were treated to liquid formula before moving onto solid food.

At the time in the late 1980s, the seals were close to extinction –- there were just around 4,000 to 5,000 left in the sea from a population of around 100,000 before the Second World War.

"The population began to decrease drastically in the 1950s due to hunting amid competition with fishers," said Surviliene.

The 1960s also saw the use of pesticides in agriculture that were "incredibly toxic for predators", the scientist said.

The seals at the top of the food chain in the Baltic Sea absorbed the pollution, leaving the females infertile and the entire population with a weak immune system, unable to ward off parasites and resist infections.

After a ban on toxic pesticide use, the population survived, with the current estimates putting the number of grey seals in the Baltic Sea at 50,000 to 60,000.

In a response to overfishing, the European Commission also finally banned commercial cod fishing in the eastern Baltic Sea in 2019.

"Over 80 percent of fish resources in the Baltic Sea have been destroyed, the seals have nothing left to eat," said Grusas.

The ban has yet to show a positive result.

"There has been no fishing of eastern Baltic cod for around five years, but it's not yet recovering -- and it's one of the main sources of food" for the seals, said Darius Daunys, a scientist at Klaipeda University.

Recently a growing number of adult seals have been washing up on Lithuanian beaches.

Scientists like Grusas point the finger at near-shore fishing nets, where seals desperate for food end up entangled and ultimately drown.

Out in the Baltic Sea, the nine released seals took their first swim in the wild.

Previously, GPS trackers showed they favored a route north toward the Swedish Gotland island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, where fish are more plentiful.

Others, however, needed a gentle push from the biologists.

In previous years, the released seals would even follow the boat back to shore, scared to venture off alone.

Eventually they all find their way in the wild.

Grusas is now preparing to retire after dedicating his life to saving animals.

He will leave at a time when the grey Baltic seal population has stabilized, but remains highly vulnerable.

"I've spent my whole life with seals," he said. "I'm tired of the tension –- you just don't know what can happen to them."