At the China (Shanghai) International Technology Import and Export Fair held recently, the "basalt fiber modular equipment for in-situ preparation of lunar soil" independently developed by the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials of Donghua University became the focus of the core exhibition area.According to Wang Qingwei (doctoral supervisor), a professor at Donghua University and a member of the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, the laboratory’s team of academicians Zhu Meifang, Cheng Yanhua, and Wang Qingwei had previously obtained precious 500 milligrams of Chang’e-5’s real lunar soil.
Based on in-depth research on the composition and characteristics of real lunar soil, the team successfully prepared simulated lunar soil, and used 1400-1500°C high-temperature melting combined with vacuum traction technology to prepare ultra-fine fibers with a diameter of only 10-20 microns (about 1/5 to 1/6 of a human hair).
In order to overcome the challenges of the extreme lunar environment (unmanned, vacuum, low gravity), the team independently developed this automatic fiber-forming equipment for lunar soil fibers that can work in deep space environments.
During the research and development process, Donghua University achieved three “firsts”. In terms of energy utilization, they made full use of the abundant solar energy on the moon and used the characteristics of DC power for the first time to prepare simulated lunar soil fibers.
Secondly, it is the first time in the world to realize wire drawing in a vacuum environment. The difficulty of this work is that there are unknown conditions in the selection of the entire equipment material, as well as the melting and heat transfer of the high-temperature melt;Finally, the automatic fiber formation of lunar soil fibers is also the first operation. This equipment is equipped with an automatic traction device, which can realize automatic fiber formation of lunar soil fibers under precise control of temperature, melt viscosity, traction speed and other conditions.
It is reported that Donghua University will continue to optimize lunar soil fiber preparation technology in the future and explore a diversified "Chinese plan" for lunar soil fiber formation, aiming to provide key material support for the construction of future lunar bases and contribute more to human space exploration and lunar exploration projects.
