Re:A SpaceX booster now trails only 4 space shuttles in flig...
by nickik on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @07:05AM
(#27128892)
Tests have shown then depending on the situation lunar regolith can go up 80MPa. And the more water is contained, the harder it gets. You get low yield from that, around 10%. So you need to mine a pretty large amount and process it.
So you need to create excavator that operate inside a creator that can operate at extrem temperatures.
On Mars you can literally do what we already do at the South Pole, drill a hole and make it warm.
Its multiple orders of magnitude easier.
Ice is 0.5 Mpa stong in the freezer and 2 Mpa at absolute zero.
Thats tensile strenght of chalk and limestone - you can get that with a shovel. Tensile strength of rock is measured in Hundreds of MPA.
The smallest, wimpiest digger you can find can handle it.