China to send sample bricks into space to test for building research base on moon

Chinese scientists plan to send bricks made from simulated lunar soil into space to evaluate if they can be used to build a research base on the moon, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

The sample bricks will be sent to see how they hold up in extreme conditions in order to subsequently build the proposed research base on the moon.

They are slated to be sent into the space from the Tiangong space station next month on the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft, the newspaper cited Ding Lieyun, an expert in intelligent construction from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, as saying.

Beijing intends to build a research base-known as the International Lunar Research Station, or ILRS-near the moon's south pole by 2035 for scientific exploration and resource development.

In a three-year experiment, scientists will observe how the samples degrade under radiation and temperature changes.

"We can bake the bricks to a strength of 100 megapascals here on Earth, which is much harder than concrete," said Ding, who heads the university's National Centre of Technology Innovation for Digital Construction.

The research, however, is needed to determine whether the bricks could withstand the harsh environment on the moon, he added.

A standard clay brick typically ranges in strength between 10 and 20 megapascals, while high-strength bricks used in specific structural applications can reach up to 50 megapascals.