Version 1.3 June 9, 2021

The Cast Basalt Habitat Pressure Hull research project’s goal is to determine if Lunar cast basalt can be used as the pressure hull material for Lunar Homestead habitats.
Why
Basalt is the primary component of Lunar maria. The pace of Homestead construction will be greatly increased if we can use this basalt to construct pressure hulls instead of having to use Lunar iron (see previous project). Additionally, we’re going to be melting mare basalt to extract iron and oxygen (and other resources). Being able to turn the remaining basalt (after extracting resources) into pressure hull components will save time and energy. If cast basalt turns out to be a poor candidate then we’ll have to start up the iron pressure hull research and/or aluminum pressure hull research.
Hypothesis
Cast Lunar basalt is a suitable construction material for Lunar Homestead pressure hulls.
Scope
Each sub-project will attempt to answer a specific question.
- Earth basalt parameters (unprocessed)
- Internet and literature research
- Lunar basalt parameters (unprocessed)
- Internet and literature research
- Comparison of Earth and Lunar basalt parameters (unprocessed)
- Internet and literature research
- Iron extraction tech (Earth) – This tech will probably be the same tech used to extract oxygen.
- Oxygen extraction tech (Earth) – This is the being researched in the Lunar Oxygen Extraction Research (LOER) project.
- Basalt casting tech (Earth)
- Iron extraction tech (Luna)
- Oxygen extraction tech (Luna)
- Basalt casting tech (Luna)
- Complete Lunar basalt iron-oxygen extraction and casting tech
- Cast Earth basalt parameters (processed)
- Internet and literature research
- Cast Lunar basalt parameters (processed)
- Internet and literature research
- Component design and joining
- Surface sealant (if necessary)
- Maintenance, repairs, and expansion
Cast Basalt Pressure Hull Research Project Category Posts
Please check out the Get Involved! page if you would like to help Lunar Homestead achieve these goals (and more).