It sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi novel—colonists on the Moon building cities from nothing but sunlight and lunar dirt. But in a laboratory in Hefei, China, engineers have turned this fantasy into working hardware.
The Deep Space Exploration Laboratory has developed a 3D-printing-style machine that takes lunar regolith—the powdery soil covering the Moon—and uses concentrated sunlight to melt it into tough, functional bricks. No glue. No additives. No supply rockets hauling cement from Earth. Just heat, dust, and ingenuity.
Continue reading… “Sun-Forged Cities: China’s Plan to 3D-Print the Moon into Habitable Worlds”