Is it possible to produce metal on the moon? Or other materials enabling us to build a permanent moon base? Professor Inge Bellemans of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture is conducting research into the subject together with her team. If she succeeds, Mother Earth will also reap the sustainable benefits because this will give us a way of producing metal without CO2 emissions.
In short
- If we ever want to build a moon base we will have to use materials that can be found on the moon itself.
- Steel is particularly problematic because there is no coal on the moon.
- And so we must conceive entirely new production processes. This is what professor Inge Bellemans does, with moon dust as the starting point.
As a child she spent hours studying moon craters through her telescope. Now Inge’s research must determine whether building a moon base will ever be an option, perhaps even in one of those moon craters. Her research has attracted international attention because it is one of the projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC) through an ERC Starting Grant of €1.5 million.
Inge, you are trying to ascertain whether we can build on the moon using moon dust. Can you tell us a bit more?
“Together with four colleagues I will spend the next five years determining how moon dust can be used to manufacture building materials such as metal or cement. Until we succeed, the construction of a permanent moon base will remain a tricky proposition. Transporting bricks from earth to the moon, for instance, is simply unaffordable. Also, we can’t simply implement our earthly production methods on the moon because this is also unaffordable and next to unfeasible.”
I understand that steel in particular is a problem?
“Steel is the end result of several processes. In the first step, iron ore and coke are melted together in a blast furnace. On the moon there is no trace of coal, which serves as the basis for coke. It is much smarter to start from scratch. So the question is: what raw materials are present on the moon and how can they be processed on site into usable materials? That is what we aim to determine based on our earlier research.”
One of the hypotheses on the origin of the moon is that it is a giant rock that broke away from the earth 4.5 billion years ago. Does that mean there are earthly raw materials to be found on the moon?
“The sixties and seventies were the era of the moon landings. The American space agency NASA sent several manned Apollo missions to the moon and the astronauts brought back samples of moon dust. Analysis showed its composition to be similar to that of the soil here on earth. This means moon dust contains iron ore, only it can’t be refined into steel in the same manner. On earth this is done in a blast furnace. This is because iron is not found in ores as pure metal. It is present as iron oxide, a compound of iron and oxygen. That compound must be broken down and this is done through coke, which extracts the oxygen present in iron oxide at extreme temperatures. However, the same process can’t be used on the moon.”
In other words, a completely new production process must be developed. That sounds like quite a task.
“Actually, there’s a lot we can build on. The EU places maximum focus on more sustainable steel production. As we speak, several steel manufacturers are developing a process that will replace the heavily polluting coke with hydrogen. Instead of CO2 the residue would be water. Unfortunately, transporting hydrogen to the moon is also an issue. The actual conversion of iron oxide into iron metal is triggered by electrons found in both coke and hydrogen. The same electrons are also present in electricity. We are now researching whether both the coke and the hydrogen can be left out. If we succeed in breaking the metal-oxygen bond of iron oxide using nothing but electricity, only metal and oxygen gas will remain. On a moon base such a supply of oxygen gas would come in handy for the inhabitants. As for the electricity, we want to generate it using solar panels.”
Will the outcome of your research also impact our planet?
“Absolutely. In times of climate change this is extremely important. At present, the entire steel production process generates vast quantities of CO2. If we succeed, it will also become possible on earth to manufacture sustainable steel using green electricity. This would mean that instead of CO2, only oxygen is produced alongside the metal.”
So how does your research work exactly: did NASA provide you with a generous supply of moon dust to experiment with?
“No, we make our own moondust. We know its composition and we mix pure substances and powders to create synthetic moon dust. But before we start experimenting, we first need to create a test environment with conditions that are identical as on the moon. The greatest differences are the atmosphere and gravity. We solve the problem with the atmosphere by executing our tests in a gas-tight oven. It’s gravity that will present the biggest challenge. We can’t simply turn it off. That is why we are planning simulation research in which the gravity factor can be adjusted.”
How concrete are the plans to build a permanent moon base?
“Both ESA and NASA have the ambition to build one. Such a base will then be the ideal location to conduct further scientific research. One day it may act as the departure point for journeys to Mars.”
At age 28, Inge Bellemans became a professor at Ghent University, at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, in the Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering. “When I was little, my parents often told me how their parents woke them in the middle of the night to witness the moon landing live on TV. They bought me a mini-telescope and I would stare in wonderment at all those moon craters for hours.”
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