Space Manufacturing & In-Situ Resource Utilization

Summary
Date	2022-?
Keywords	3d-printing, space, composites, lunar, ISRU, additive manufacturing

One of the grand challenges of space exploration is manufacturing structural components on-site, rather than transporting everything from Earth. The Moon offers a potential source of raw materials — lunar regolith — that could be combined with polymers to produce functional composite parts using additive manufacturing.

This project investigates the feasibility of 3D printing LDPE–lunar regolith simulant composites for structural applications in space. Key challenges include achieving adequate printability with high mineral filler content, characterizing the mechanical properties of the resulting composites, and understanding failure mechanisms specific to this material system.

Research published in Acta Astronautica (2025) demonstrates that LDPE-based composites filled with lunar regolith simulant can be successfully processed via Fused Deposition Modeling, laying the groundwork for future In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) scenarios on the lunar surface.