Brazing of SiC ceramic with extraterrestrial regolith simulant in ISRU and ISRF applications

In-situ resources play an important role in future extraterrestrial human activities for facility repair and habitat construction, especially in sustainable space exploration of the Moon and Mars. This paper verifies the feasibility of lunar and Martian regolith simulant for ceramic joining in which SiC ceramic was made into specific size samples and then brazed with the regolith under argon atmosphere, respectively. The microstructure and interfacial phase of the joints were characterized in detail. The results show that it is possible to braze ceramic parts together with extraterrestrial regolith simulant. The average ultimate shear strength of joints of SiC brazed with lunar regolith simulant (LRS-SiC), and SiC brazed with Martian regolith simulant (MRS-SiC) was 21.5 ± 6.5 MPa and 27.3 ± 13.4 MPa, respectively. Finally, the joining mechanism of the bonded joints was proposed. Intergranular diffusion of elements and new phases formed by reactions were identified as the main mechanism of bonding in the interface of SiC/glass. The presented method may provide insight into equipment maintenance associated with repairing and fabricating in subsequent Moon and Mars missions.