LSU scientists say moon dust could be a future energy source

LSU researchers are looking to the future and working on how to extract resources from moon dust. This is all part of NASA’s ambitious plan to have astronauts actually living and working on the moon in the future. Chris Marvel, an assistant professor of engineering, and LSU PhD student Emma McCarthy are part of the team working on the project and say it could be a game changer for future missions.

“The long-term idea is that, instead of bringing every material needed from Earth, we could potentially use materials already on the moon for things like construction or manufacturing for future Artemis missions and other endeavors on the moon,” explained McCarthy.

Chris Marvel says that the lunar material is abundant and the construction process would involve grinding moon dust along with other materials on the moon’s surface. “If we were going to do this on the moon, we would build a small manufacturing plant there (which we think is possible) and would then have this essentially infinite resource that we could use. We just need to get these plants built,” he went on to note.

Marvel and others believe that being able to access aluminum, iron, and other materials on the moon’s surface will save the massive trouble of having to ship all those metals from Earth. The team hopes to implement 3d printers of various scales to construct the actual facilities and other elements on the moon’s surface. While an actual timeline remains murky, the team hopes to have more details moving forward.