On December 15th, I presented at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Conference – Exploring Indoor Thermal Environment of Lunar Habitats – Implications of 3D-Printed Wall Configuration.
A little background about my year-long project: I investigated heat transfer within lunar habitat walls using simulations in ANSYS, where the walls were partially composed of indigenous lunar material, steel and multi-layer insulation.
The NASA Artemis mission aims to transport humans to the lunar surface again to explore the lunar surface and determine potential lunar habitat environments. This could have huge impacts on the scientific community, exploration for resources, signs of water, extraterrestrial life, and much more. To support life, lunar habitats must be able to withstand the extreme temperatures of the Moon. The moon lacks an insulating atmosphere, and thus despite receiving the same flux of solar radiation, it experiences hundreds of degrees of temperature swings, meteorites, particles and energy from the Sun and beyond (NASA).
One solution to the challenges of designing life support systems on the Moon comes from
using thermal properties of indigenous materials to understand possible lunar habitat
environments. The habitats must be capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and thermal
stresses resulting from the extreme weather. During my 9th grade science project, I studied the thermal properties of a lunar habitat, constructed using lunar regolith, and lunar weather data are used to simulate a viable lunar habitat for humans on the Moon. The thermal properties of habitats using indigenous resources and the corresponding long-term environmental quality in habitats as well as lunar weather data could help provide important insight to the system design for a habitat for astronauts to operate from and quarter in.
Although 9th grade Science Fair ended in Spring 2025, I continued working with Dr. Arup Bhattacharya (Louisiana State University), my mentor and guide on the project, and presented our results at AGU 2025 this week! What is equally awesome is that our research was selected and covered by AGU’s EOS magazine (Astronauts Could Live In Structures Made From Moon Rocks – Eos).
The entire experience was unreal! I met so many amazing new people from around the world, and got to visit stations set up by NASA, U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab, Sandia National Lab, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and the University of Arizona (go Wildcats!). I was interviewed by Ms. Kaia Glickman from EOS magazine. There were also so many interesting presentations at AGU – I wish I could have seen them all!
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