Talk:Industrial Mechanisms

If we could develop a good lunar mortar our lunar settlement could be built, largely by robots, from the most common lunar material available, rocks. Such buildings would provide radiation and meteor protection, and would stabilize the temperature inside.

This invention would also put the like to every SF book and movie ever made. It would redefine the look of people in space forever.

--Jriley 13:49, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Can you think of a way to do it with concrete? There's one or two concrete solutions that I'm aware of, one with sulfur and one that the Lunar University program awarded TD Lin for developing at this year's ISDC. Note that TD Lin's low hydrogen concrete cures really quickly...

-- Strangelv 18:26, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

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More on Cement

I added more information on cement. I certainly think we can come up with a lunar substitute using chemical by-products from the volatiles harvester and screened regolith in some specific size range. I do not currently have a formula to test, but extensive Earth testing will be needed.

Imagine what effect a good mortar would have on our lunar settlement.

In the current plan, the first thing built is an all-purpose station. This multi-room building is now shown as metal cylinders. Its walls will not have enough mass to shield the occupants from radiation, especially in solar storms. Long term occupancy is not safe.

We can dig the station into the regolith and cover it with at least 2 meters of that material. This would take a lot of work and heavy equipment (see Architecture as Mole Hills).

Or, if we have a good lunar mortar, we could have robots slowly encase the operating station in a stone wall a meter thick. The doors would need arched walkways leading to them. The few windows would be set deep in the stone wall. The wall would arch over the top to form a roof.

This is a lunar station as a castle or a Roman villa. I have never seen such a thing in any SF story, ever.