With moondust and a little plastic engineer Bram develops bricks for a moonbase (VIDEO)

After just eight minutes, a Lego brick made from fake moondust and plastic slides out of the 3D printer. At the European Space Agency’s astronaut centre in Cologne (Germany) 28-year-old engineer Bram Verbruggen shows off the result of his research. Together with colleagues, he spent the past two years looking for ways to make materials from lunar dust.

‘The idea is that we want to use as much material from the moon itself as possible,’ says Verbruggen. ‘To 3D-print smaller parts using lunar dust, when something on a machine breaks down, but also to make bricks that can be used to build a lunar base.’

The bricks consist of 90 to 95 per cent lunar dust and 5 to 10 per cent plastic. Baked in an oven, they become sturdy moon bricks that can even withstand the force of a rocket engine tests have shown.

Bram's bricks survive a test with a rocket engine. See video below.

‘This means we could also use the bricks to build a platform on the moon, where rockets can land stably without falling over and without the moon dust flying around and destroying everything,’ says Verbruggen. ‘But also to build roads so that our lunar vehicles are protected from sharp lunar sand.’

Since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s scientists have known that lunar dust can lead to problems, especially during longer lunar missions. Lunar dust is very sharp, which not only means it can penetrate deep into human lungs but can also quickly damage space suits and electronic components.

‘There are currently at least 20 other research groups looking for ways to make lunar bricks. The best technique will eventually make it. I hope it will be ours, but I am already hugely honoured that Belspo (Belgium’s federal science policy ministry) has given me the opportunity to serve as an intern at ESA, the European Space Agency.’

Europe is bound for the moon

We are going back to the moon, and this time to stay there. This is the philosophy behind the United States' new lunar missions. The European space agency ESA too is contributing to this effort. Thanks to Bram Verbruggen's research, you can take that literally!

‘It is important that Europe also participates in the further exploration of the moon,’ says Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne, who heads the astronaut centre in Cologne.

‘The biggest cost is still transport. 95 per cent of the total cost of going to the lunar surface goes on transport. So every kilogram that we don't have to take with us to the moon and can use and reuse on site brings a big saving in costs.’

‘That's why it's important that we work to develop this technology here with young people and can test it here, in our simulated lunar landscape, because building a small lunar brick in a lab is still something completely different from doing it on the moon!’