Email contact@lunarbuildprize.org to register your team.
Join the conversation /r/moneromoonprize.
List of Teams
EarthRise
Books
Guthrie, Julian, R. Branson, and S. Hawking. How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight. Penguin Press, September, 2016.
Vance, Ashlee. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Ecco, May, 2015.
Open Source References (comment to add your own useful resources)
[1]http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/03/15/send-1pound-payload-moon-950k/
[2]http://lunar.xprize.org/about/guidelines
[3]McKay, David S., et al. “The lunar regolith.” Lunar sourcebook (1991): 285-356.
[4]Noble, Sarah. “The Lunar Regolith.” (2009).
[5]Duke, Michael B., et al. “Development of the Moon.” Reviews in mineralogy and geochemistry 60.1 (2006): 597-655.
[6]Taylor, Jeff, Larry Taylor, and Mike Duke. “Concentrations of Volatiles in the Lunar Regolith.” (2007).
[7]Crawford, Ian A. “Lunar resources: A review.” Progress in Physical Geography 39.2 (2015): 137-167.
[8]Taylor, Lawrence, et al. “Lunar Dust Problem: From Liability to Asset.” 1st space exploration conference: continuing the voyage of discovery. 2005.
[9]Taylor, Lawrence A., and Thomas T. Meek. “Microwave sintering of lunar soil: properties, theory, and practice.” Journal of Aerospace Engineering 18.3 (2005): 188-196.
[10]Colwell, J. E., et al. “Lunar surface: Dust dynamics and regolith mechanics.” Reviews of Geophysics 45.2 (2007).
[11]Krishna Balla, Vamsi, et al. “First demonstration on direct laser fabrication of lunar regolith parts.” Rapid Prototyping Journal 18.6 (2012): 451-457.
[12]Fateri, Miranda, and Andreas Gebhardt. “Process Parameters Development of Selective Laser Melting of Lunar Regolith for On‐Site Manufacturing Applications.” International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology 12.1 (2015): 46-52.
[13]Indyk, Stephen. Structural members produced from unrefined lunar regolith, a structural assessment. Diss. Rutgers University-Graduate School-New Brunswick, 2015.
[14]Lim, Sungwoo, and Mahesh Anand. “In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) derived extra-terrestrial construction processes using sintering-based additive manufacturing techniques–focusing on a lunar surface environment.” (2015).
[15]Goulas, Athanasios, et al. “3D printing with moondust.” Rapid Prototyping Journal 22.6 (2016): 864-870.
[16]Kayser, Markus. SolarSinter Project: www.markuskayser.com.
[17]Rietema, Menno-Jan. “Design of a solar sand printer.” (2013).
[18]Klein, John, et al. “Additive manufacturing of optically transparent glass.” 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing 2.3 (2015): 92-105.
[19]Fabes, B. D., and W. H. Poisl. “Processing of glass-ceramics from lunar resources.” (1991).
[20]Fabes, B. D., et al. “Melt-processing of lunar ceramics.” (1992).
[21]Magoffin, Michael, and John Garvey. “Lunar glass production using concentrated solar energy.” Space Programs and Technologies Conference. 1990.
[22]Gaier, James R., Shaneise Ellis, and Nicole Hanks. “Thermal optical properties of lunar dust simulants.” Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer 26.4 (2012): 573-580.
Message from the Prize Funder
You are on a Mission of great need. We as a species are venturing out into Space but require our machines to carry us through the void.
Right now almost all of our tools are stuck deep inside of Earth’s gravity well. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to throw even the smallest fraction of them up and out. Instead, what this Challenge proposes is to spend the energy that it takes to throw one tool, a single tool, outside of the well. This tool will be your 3D printer and it will produce many more tools from the abundance of the Moon. Bit by bit these tools will be built to form the toolbox of tomorrow. Each one will be carefully crafted and will be unbound by the energy debt held by all tools on Earth in our quest of what is beyond the well.
You will be forging new industry, separate and distinct from Earth. You will be pioneers in a land of resource. The commercial applications and profit-making incentives that arise from this are mind-boggling. So please, do this for us, do this for you, do this because it is the thing we must do.
Lunar Soil Simulants
mare soils: JSC-1A, JSC-1, MLS-1, MLS-1P, FJS-1, JSC-1A-5000-2X (weathered)
highlands soils: NU-LHT-2M, OB-1, Chenobi, NU-LHT-2M-700-1X (weathered)
purchasing: JSC-1A (~$60/kg on ebay)
low cost, bulk alternatives: [share what works for you]
Note: do not use simulants MLS-1 or MLS-1P for tests depending on optical reflectance/absorbance (see [22])