At 4:30 a.m. on November 24, 2020, China successfully launched the 8.2-ton lunar exploration project “Chang’e-5” probe with the Long March 5 rocket carrier at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China.
About 2,200 seconds after the rocket flew, the probe was successfully sent into the predetermined orbit, starting China’s first return journey for sampling of extraterrestrial objects.
Re-entry module of Chang’e-5 lunar probe at the landing site in Siziwang Banner, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on early Thursday morning, 17th December. Photo: Screenshot of CCTV
Unlike the previous Chang’e-4 and Chang’e-3, the Chang’e-5 probe will not only automatically land on the moon under unmanned conditions, but also “dig earth” on the moon and take off again to ship 2 kilograms of lunar soil back to earth.
After Chang’e-5’s lunar surface sampling returns, according to the plan, Chang’e-6 will sample and return from the lunar south pole, Chang’e-7 will explore the lunar south pole in a comprehensive way, and Chang’e-8 may verify key technologies such as “3D printing” houses on the moon. Countries will then work together to build a lunar scientific research base and do some preliminary explorations.
Building houses in space is not easy task, transporting materials to space is not only expensive, but also takes a long time. In this case, large-scale using 3D printing is a more realistic method, especially if the moon’s own materials can be used to build structures using automated systems.
Similarly, the ultimate goal of China’s lunar landing plan is not only to send people to the moon, but also to establish a lunar station on the surface of the moon where humans can live for a long time. Field verification of whether the soil on the surface of the moon can be used to make “3D printed” building materials will be one of the important tasks of Chang’e-8 in the future.
But turning the lunar soil into building materials is not a simple problem. In addition to the soil quality, the problem of adhesives must be solved. In recent years, a large amount of water has been found on the moon, and this water is mainly distributed at the poles of the moon.
Thanks to 3D printing technology, building a base on the moon could theoretically be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to construct it from local materials.
Celopro® cellulose ethers is an important additive for 3D printing too, together with Celopro, other chemical specialties been applied. Celopro MT3050 is a product specially developed for this application.
About Celotech Chemical
Celotech Chemical is a company that provides cellulosics and related services to many essential markets.With our product, Celotech serves customers in lots of countries and several industries, including construction, paint, pharmaceutical, food, personal care and other special industries. In the meantime we constantly develop new applications and product solutions in partnership with our customers. Founded in 2005, Celotech Chemicals is a young company but growing fast. Celotech has the production base in Shandong, China with an annual production capacity of 15,000MT of MC (HPMC/MHEC) plus 5000 MT of HEC.
About Celopro
We concentrate on cellulose ethers and HPMC, MHEC and HEC are main products we're producing. We supply to global market various grades with different substitution degree, broad range of viscosities thus for different applications.It owns CELOPRO and CELOPRE sub-brands.
Key Word:#3d printing#cellulose ether#celopro