TOKYO -- Mitsubishi Materials and Japan's space agency have begun research into fashioning concrete from materials available on the moon, as part of a concept for a base there.
The Japanese company and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, hope to find a way to make concrete blocks using lunar soil, which contains large amounts of glass. They will apply a technique employed by the ancient Romans in which sand and other materials were mixed with water and heated to create a solid. The research will cover such areas as heating time and temperature.
