The Paton Welding Journal, 2025, №02

2025 №02 (01)

DOI of Article 10.37434/tpwj2025.02.02

2025 №02 (03)

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The Paton Welding Journal, 2025, #2, 8-12 pages

Workplace of a cosmonaut-welder for welding of objects on the surface of the Moon

N.V. Piskun¹, O.R. Bulatsev¹, V.A. Kryukov¹, Zeng Ruchuan², Ye.H. Ternovy¹

¹E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute of the NASU. 11 Kazymyr Malevych Str., 03150, Kyiv, Ukraine. E-mail:
²Beijing Spacecrafts No.104, Youyi Road, Haidian District, Beijing, P.R.C., China

Abstract
When permans explore the Moon, not only the development of specialized electron beam welding equipment, but also auxiliary equipment, which is the workplace (WP) of a cosmonaut-welder, is very relevant. The paper describes the working project for the manufacture of the cosmonaut-welder WP, which is adapted for performing electron beam welding and related technologies with a hand tool in Earth orbit and on the surface of the Moon. The development of the WP took into account the peculiarities of the surface of the Moon and, first of all, the reduced gravity compared to the Earth, low temperature, and the presence and action of lunar dust (regolith). It is shown that the main technical characteristics of the cosmonaut-welder WP are: transport dimensions, mass characteristics, service area, selection of the chassis design of the mobile WP, as well as the specific choice of the electric drive and its power supply (autonomous, solar battery, battery or onboard network of the space station). The object of research and calculations was the typical design of the lunar module of DB “Pivdenne” Enterprise. The proposed workplace of the cosmonaut-welder is made in the form of a folded “cradle”. In the transport position, it should take up a minimum of space and have a minimum weight. Several variants of the cosmonaut-welder workplace are proposed and considered according to the following parameters: dimensions in the transport position, the number of moving elements from the point of view of the influence of lunar dust — regoliths, the weight of the structure, convenience and ease of transfer from the transport position to the working position. Calculations of the necessary weight of the cosmonaut-welder workplace for performing work on the surface of the Moon have been carried out. The measures that ensure the reliability of the operation of the cosmonaut-welder workplace in open space and on the surface of the Moon are given.
Keywords: workplace, cosmonaut-welder, electron beam welding, spacecraft engineering

Received: 27.09.2024
Received in revised form: 07.01.2025
Accepted: 31.03.2025

References

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2. https://thinkorbital.com/news/launch-of-first-welding-system/
3. Paton, B.E., Gavrish, S.S., Shulim, V.F. et al. (2000) Manual electron beam technological work in space. In: Space: Technologies, Materials Science, Structures. Ed. by B.E. Paton, Kyiv, PWI, 191-215 [in Russian].
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Suggested Citation

N.V. Piskun, O.R. Bulatsev, V.A. Kryukov, Zeng Ruchuan, Ye.H. Ternovy (2025) Workplace of a cosmonaut-welder for welding of objects on the surface of the Moon. The Paton Welding J., 02, 8-12.

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