Material Development and Characterization of Ductile Lunar and Martian Regolith-Based Cementitious Composite

Abstract

Abstract This study successfully develops lunar and Martian regolith-based strain-hardening cementitious composites (SHCC). Mixtures incorporated four different regolith simulants, lunar highlands (LH) and lunar mare (LM) for the Moon and Martian global (MG) and Martian polyhydrated-sulfate (MS) for Mars, with five formulations per celestial body at 65% by weight simulant replacement and 1% by volume polyethylene (PE) fibers. Characterization included calorimetry/thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), compressive and direct-tensile testing, crack-pattern analysis under both loading and unloading conditions, and particle-packing evaluation. Ductile Mooncrete achieved compressive strengths of 44–68 MPa and tensile ductility of 2.3%–5.7% with an ultimate strain of 4.9–7.2 MPa at peak stress, consistently coupling strength with ductility. Ductile Marscrete reached 31–50 MPa in compression and 4.4%–9.2% tensile strain at 3.2–5.9 MPa peak stress, showing composition-dependent tradeoffs between strength (MG-rich) and ductility (MS-rich). Crack mapping confirmed a multiple-cracking pattern without localization. Mooncrete exhibited fewer, tighter cracks while Marscrete showed higher crack multiplicity with wider openings, and both systems displayed measurable crack-width recovery upon unloading. These results demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating simulant based, strain-hardening composites from lunar and Martian regolith simulants and highlight composition as a lever to tune stiffness, strength, and ductility for resilient space infrastructure.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2026 · DOI ↗