Plan to 3-D print moon base with lunar dust

Russia’s moon base project envisages the use of 3-D printing technologies and lunar soil, a spokesperson for Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos recently told the TASS news agency.

They said the third stage of Russia’s moon programme, which will follow short-term missions to the Earth’s ‘natural satellite’, will see “the launch of construction of large-scale structures with the use of additive technologies and local resources”.

After the third stage, Roscosmos plans to create “all conditions for long-term lunar missions”.

Speaking during a lecture at Moscow State University, Roscosmos’s Dmitry Rogozin said that Russian cosmonauts would land on the Moon for the first time in 2030, while the Russian spacecraft manufacturer Lavochkin Research and Production Association suggested that lunar construction should be carried out with the help of a solar-powered 3-D printer that uses moon dust, or regolith (a layer of loose heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock) as feed material.