REACT: Relevant Environment Additive Construction Technology
Figure 1: REACT in the vacuum chamber
The REACT project began as a collaboration between SpaceFactory, NASA KSC, and LERA Construction in the Fall of 2020. The goal of the three-year-long project was to prove additive manufacturing as a construction method in a relevant lunar environment using in-situ resources. To do so, we constructed a scaled down version of the ASTRA extruder that would fit inside a vacuum chamber and extrude pellets composed of various thermoplastics compounded with up to 85% lunar simulant on a surface of 100% lunar simulant. Figure 1 to the right shows the extruder which moves about the vacuum chamber on a gantry system, and Figure 2 shows a 1:50 scale prototype of LINA, the habitat intended to be constructed on the lunar surface.
Figure 2: LINA design being printed out of pellets composed of 15% PLA and 85% lunar regolith simulant.
Figure 2: Redesigned docking station to be frabricated out of sheet metal
After several prints were successfully completed, samples of the material were tested to determine the structural integrity of the habitat. SpaceFactory performed modified ASTM flexural, tensile, and compressive tests (Figure 3) and the results were used by LERA to further optimize the LINA design. Greater detail can be found in the final report, linked at the top of this page.