That photo is amazing, I haven’t seen a lava tube on the moon before! It’s great that China is pushing ahead with this.
I wonder how you could make lava tubes airtight. If it’s hardened stone or even iron, I imagine you could just leave most of the surface as is or seal it with some kind of resin. And for cracks and gaps you could “3D print” on the surface to create a seal. Not sure if or what 3D print plastics you could print in vacuum. All this could theoretically be done with robots.
They just need to find a way to transport and land enough materials on the moon. Maybe a railgun that can be used in reverse for cargo delivery.
Not sure if or what 3D print plastics you could print in vacuum.
I think it should be doable as long as the plastic isn’t too volatile. The biggest challenge might be cooling the stepper motors.
Interesting. You could design a robot arm where most of the surface can transmit and radiate heat away from the motors.
PS: Oh I just found out the design I’m thinking of is “frameless dc motor” or servo so you can route cables internally and have aluminum tubes on the outside for heat transport (“When high temperatures are a concern, the machine structure can provide effective heatsinking”). And now that I know the name they are actually not that expensive on aliexpress! Something like this as a servo with CAN and 48V connection and flanges to directly attach lightweight ~15cm tubes would make building a robot arm pretty easy! EDIT: Ok basically you’d just need a lathe to make a housing with flange and to fit a bearing.
