Laser used to melt moondust

The PAVER consortium made use of a 12-kilowatt carbon dioxide laser to melt simulated moondust into a glassy solid surface, as a way of constructing paved surfaces on the face of the Moon. At facilities installed at Clausthal University of Technology, the consortium achieved a spot size of 5-10 cm. Proceeding through trial and error, they devised a strategy using a 4.5 cm diameter laser beam to produce triangular, hollow-centred geometric shapes approximately 20 cm across. These could be interlocked to create solid surfaces across large areas of lunar soil which could serve as roads or landing pads.