RAMMED MOON ROBOTIC RAMMED REGOLITH
Three rammed regolith walls standing on the lunar plain in low sun, with the Earth small in a black sky.

EARTH, ENGINEERED. ELSEWHERE.

Homes that
don't need
the Earth

Rammed earth, minus the Earth.

The Moon is covered in metres of crushed rock, and nobody has built a wall with it yet. Rammed Moon is a concept for rammed regolith houses: solid, quiet, enduring, and a long way from the neighbours.

Explore

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A flat stretch of lunar plain, pegged out with a string line for a house.

THE SITE

384,400 km from the nearest quarry

Landing freight on the Moon costs upwards of a million US dollars a kilogram at today's published rates. A brick weighs three.

So the walls are made from what is already there. Using the site.

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Close view of a rammed regolith wall: horizontal layers in light and dark greys.

THE MATERIAL

Already crushed

Four billion years of meteorite impacts have done the quarrying. Regolith is sharp, angular and metres deep, and it comes in two colours: pale highland rock and dark mare basalt.

Rammed in alternating lifts, it gives strata in two greys.

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The end of a tall rammed wall in hard sunlight, throwing a black shadow across the ground.

THE CLIMATE

It has never rained

Water is the oldest enemy of an earth wall. The Moon has no rain, no wind, no frost heave and no termites. A wall there should weather about as fast as a footprint.

It does have a fortnight of sun at around 120°C, a fortnight of night below −130°C, hard vacuum and radiation. Hence the next slide.

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A doorway through a rammed wall two metres thick, showing the depth of the reveal.

THE WALL

Two metres thick

On Earth, a thick earth wall evens out a hot day and a cold night. On the Moon the day lasts a month, and the same mass also stands between you and the radiation.

Deep reveals come standard. Eaves are optional.

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An unmanned frame standing over a part-built rammed wall.

THE MACHINE

One-sixth the gravity

A dropped rammer hits one-sixth as hard up there, so the rams are driven, not dropped. The good news is on the other side of the ledger: the wall weighs one-sixth as much on its footing.

No crew on site. Hands off, by necessity.

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A single-storey rammed regolith house with a flat roof and one lit window, on the lunar plain.

DISPLAY HOMES

Named after the Moon's gorges

A rille is a lunar gorge. Ours are open by appointment, subject to launch windows.

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Inside a rammed regolith room, looking out through a deep window at the lunar plain and the Earth.

THE VIEW

Earth never sets

From the near side of the Moon, the Earth hangs in the same spot in the sky all year. Pick the window once.

Earth views from every room on that side of the house.

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One small test wall standing alone on the lunar plain, with rover tracks leading to it.

THE FINE PRINT

What we don't know

Rammed earth holds together with a little clay and a little water. The Moon offers neither. Sintering, sulphur and geopolymer binders are all being studied by people with actual rockets.

  • A binder for dry regolithPending
  • Ramming in a vacuumUntested
  • The roofAnother website
  • Launch providerPending
  • AtmosphereNot included

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The Earth seen through a window opening in a rammed regolith wall.

MEANWHILE, ON EARTH

The real moonshot is down here

Rammed Moon is a daydream from Gorge Walls. The day job is a machine that rams earth walls on Earth, where the freight is cheaper and the neighbours are closer.

gorgewalls.com.au

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