MOONRISE
The Project
In the MOONRISE project, scientists are researching 3D printing on the Moon. The goal is to create landing pads and roads from regolith – lunar dust – using laser melting technology. In collaboration with the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at TU Berlin, LZH will deploy a laser system to the Moon to test this process in situ. The system melts the material, which forms solid structures upon solidification.
Artificial intelligence will analyze the melting process on the Moon, enabling scientists on Earth to implement AI-based process and quality control.
The foundations for the project were already established in the predecessor project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, in which the research team successfully melted regolith in the Einstein Elevator under lunar conditions. You can find out more about this in our MOONRISE film.
MOONRISE's project partners are the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. and the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the TU Berlin. The project is funded by the German Space Agency at DLR with funds from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.
News
The Beginnings of MOONRISE
Researchers have already laid many important foundations for the MOONRISE project: A team of scientists from the Institute of Space Systems (IRAS) at the TU Braunschweig and the LZH succeeded in melting regolith into spheres in the Einstein elevator under lunar gravity. They also tested the developed laser on the MIRA3D rover of IRAS in the laboratory.
The first phase of the research project was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
Contact
Dr. rer. nat. Jörg Neumann
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Gallery
Animation: The MOONRISE laser on the Moon
Fest der Wissenschaft: 60th anniverary of the Volkswagen Foundation
