From now on: lunar surface!

Over the last few weeks, the main hall of LUNA has been transformed into a real lunar surface. The industrial building has become a dark, dusty environment that can only be entered with protective equipment similar to astronaut suits.

As soon as the hall was handed over, the delivery of the lunar sand “EAC-1A” began in so-called big bags, which were initially stored temporarily in the hall because various preparatory work still had to be carried out in parallel.

Then the emptying of the bags began: using the gantry crane installed in the hall, the big bags were lifted, opened at the bottom by project employees in full protective suits and the regolith distributed in the hall. At the same time, one or two lorries a day continued to arrive with new material, meaning that the last two weeks were dominated by “regolith processing”.

In the meantime, a large part of the 900 tonnes of lunar sand is in the hall – and the view now looks very lunar indeed: dark, dusty, inhospitable, grey – and people in astronaut suits.