Solar-Sintered Regolith Roads and Landing Pads Built with a Concentrated Solar Furnace

This study sizes solar sintering of a 400 square metre landing pad and road surface: fusing a 5 centimetre layer requires heating 30 tonnes of regolith, an energy of 33.7 gigajoules, which a 100 kilowatt solar furnace delivers in 9.4 useful solar days, a production rate near 43 square metres per day. Sizing follows from computed thermal and regolith budgets derived in the study. This is a computed study with no targeting or weapon application. The work is simulated and computed from stated assumptions, not measured.