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Rendering of the “Yue Hu Zun” lunar base. Photo: screenshot from CNSA website<\/p>\n
The first batch of experimental “lunar soil bricks,” developed for future construction on the lunar surface, has successfully returned to Earth aboard the Shenzhou-21 spaceship after spending a full year exposed to the space environment. Examinations by Chinese researchers confirmed that the samples remained in good condition, China Central Television (CCTV News) reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The batch is a part of a pioneering experiment aboard China’s space station. The experiment began in November 2024, when the Tianzhou-8 cargo ship delivered the simulated lunar-soil samples up to the space station. A total of 74 small bricks were mounted on an external exposure platform on the station’s exterior, Xinhua News Agency reported.<\/p>\n
The bricks were produced using materials formulated to match the composition of real lunar regolith and were fabricated through three forming techniques: hot press sintering, electromagnetic induction sintering and microwave sintering, giving them a compressive strength more than three times that of ordinary bricks.<\/p>\n
The bricks were sent into space primarily to verify three key material properties: their mechanical performance, thermal performance and radiation resistance.<\/p>\n
The returning payload, labeled the R5 sample unit, contained 34 of the 74 experimental “lunar soil bricks,” weighing a total of about 100 grams, according to CCTV.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past year, the bricks were exposed to continuous radiation, dramatic temperature swings and other extreme conditions. According to the research team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a detailed analysis confirmed that their overall condition remained stable and sound.<\/p>\n
Global Times\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rendering of the “Yue Hu Zun” lunar base. Photo: screenshot from CNSA website The first batch of experimental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-282267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}