Effect of volatile-containing glass beads on sintering evolution of lunar regolith simulants

The autonomous construction of shelters using in-situ resources, such as via additive manufacturing (3D printing) of regolith feedstock, is a necessary prerequisite and priority to sustain longer duration human presence on the Moon from both a cost and risk perspective. We aim to use powder diffraction data to generate the baseline fundamental description of simulants ‘TUBS-M’ and ‘TUBS-T’, with a particular emphasis on phase evolution during sintering and recrystallization. For improved fidelity we propose here to look at the expected strong influence of systematically incorporating two distinct volatile-containing glass beads types according to returned Apollo specimens to 1) characterise the state of the sample during the process as a function of glass content, 2) observe sintering rates as a function of the same, and 3) model sintering behaviour, supported by external mechanical testing.