Houston, we’ve had a winner here!
We are proud and happy to share that the two year GLAMS Project (Geopolimeri per Additive Manufacturing e Monitoraggio Lunare) of the University of Padova, receives funding of over 400,000 euros by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) as it ranks first in the thematic area “Advanced Materials” and overall winner of the “Days of Academic Space Research” call.
The project aims to create structural elements for the construction of lunar bases through a 3D printing approach that uses cement binders extracted from lunar soils (regolith). By exploiting locally available raw materials, the concept of the project is to minimize the costs and environmental impact due to the transport of raw materials from Earth to the Moon.
GLAMS Project holds a partnership with the Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Energy Technologies of the CNR (ICMATE) based in Genoa and WASP, the Italian leader of 3D printing. The project includes Professor Luca Valentini of the Department of Geosciences as scientific manager, and Prof Carlo Bettanini and Dr. Giorgia Franchin of the Department of Industrial Engineering who will lead the first phase of the project. In such, a geopolymer binder will be formulated from the chemical activation of lunar regolith.
You can take a look at the activities of ASI in here: https://www.asi.it/