Lunar Glass Structure (LUNGS): Enabling Construction of Monolithic Habitats in Low-Gravity
In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is essential for sustainable lunar exploration. Because launching materials from Earth is energetically (and economically) expensive, long-duration missions will depend on the ability to transform local resources into structural components, shielding, and consumables.
One of the most abundant resources on the Moon is lunar regolith: a layer of unconsolidated debris that covers the surface, typically 4–5 meters thick in the mare regions and up to 10–15 meters thick in the older highlands. Its composition is dominated by silicate minerals such as anorthite and basalt, with SiO₂ often constituting around 50% of the material by weight.
This remarkably high silica content naturally raises the question of whether regolith can be processed into glass, a material that could enable a wide range of structural and manufacturing applications on the Moon. Understanding how regolith melts, flows, and can be reshaped is necessary to validate concepts for building infrastructure from lunar resources.
The LGST Lab is partnering with Dr. Martin Bermúdez, PI of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase 1 project Lunar Glass Structure (LUNGS) at Skyeports, and Mr. Josh Simpson, world-renowned glass artist and Co-I, to address the challenge of melting lunar regolith simulant under vacuum and forming glass structures from the molten material. By partially reproducing the vacuum environment of the lunar surface, we are investigating whether regolith can be transformed into usable glass in the absence of atmospheric pressure while determining the properties of the resulting materials. The volatile release and reduced oxidation under vacuum may lead to material properties distinct from those of the glass formed on Earth. The results will help clarify the constraints that govern regolith glass production in vacuum environments and establish realistic expectations for forming glass shells directly on the Moon. In addition, they will provide foundational data to support the development of future in-situ construction technologies.
The NASA NIAC LUNGS project aims to create large, monolithic glass habitats by melting regolith and blowing hollow spheres. Previous demonstrations by the LUNGS team have shown that regolith can be melted and shaped at temperatures near 1500 K under atmospheric conditions. The behavior of regolith when melted and blown entirely in a vacuum, as would be required on the Moon, remains largely unexplored, with only a few NASA reports hinting that vacuum glass blowing may be possible.
Student lead: Luca Scifoni