Moon BRICCSS: Moon Blocks Using Regolith ISRU for Corbelled Construction of Sustainable Shielding

The United States, along with 52 other Artemis Accords signatories, are committed to engaging in a peaceful and sustainable development of human presence on the moon in the next two decades. For sustained human habitation on the Moon, a significant amount of radiation protection will be required around lunar habitats to mitigate exposure to ionizing radiation and protect astronauts' long-term health. In addition, habitats will need protection from micrometeoroids and the extreme temperature swings characteristic of the lunar environment. The utilization of local resources (ISRU) for construction and shielding on the Moon would considerably reduce launch mass from Earth and is a key enabling technology for a scalable human presence. This paper proposes an architecture where molten regolith is cast into hollow, hexagonal prism bricks, filled with aggregate regolith and robotically assembled into a corbelled structure. Key innovations include the manufacturing of hollow masonry units filled with loose regolith to reduce energy demands and annealing time, as well as the hexagonal brick design for compatibility with casting, energy minimization, and structural stability. Also, the back-weighting of the corbelling technique provides a stable structure without the need for metal supports, mortar, or other binders that would need to be sourced from Earth or substantially processed, enabling the construction materials to be derived entirely from un-beneficiated lunar regolith. The manufacturing method selected is simple and industrially scalable for increasing lunar habitation. The resulting structure is made out of Moon BRICCSS (Blocks using Regolith ISRU for Corbelled Construction of Sustainable Shielding) that are 1 meter tall and 3 meters long, capable of being handled by expected robotic technology. Analysis of expected brick thermal expansion and overall structural stability of a corbelled arch are presented, in addition to the results of the technology demonstrations for manufacturing a scaled brick unit and the robotic assembly procedure. Moon BRICCSS is a proposal for the manufacturing and construction of a highly durable and scalable radiation, thermal, plume, and micrometeoroid protection structure compatible with different habitat configurations.