NASA is supporting an ambitious project aimed at enabling future human landings on the Moon. Skyeports, an American company, proposes building giant, transparent domes—glass spheres—out of lunar sand as habitats for future astronauts.
The idea is that such structures could provide housing, food, and energy directly on the lunar surface, eliminating the need to transport building materials from Earth. The concept involves using silicate-rich lunar regolith and blowing it into giant glass spheres using microwaves.
After cooling, these spheres harden, forming a durable, transparent shell that is resistant to micrometeorites and even moonquakes. There are also plans to embed solar panels directly into the glass, allowing each sphere to generate its own electricity.
Skyeports' preliminary experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of blowing glass spheres from regolith. However, their current diameter is only a few inches. In the future, engineers hope to build spheres up to 300 to 500 meters in diameter.
The project is part of NASA's National Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which funds the most futuristic ideas. Skyeports CEO Martin Bermudez said such "glass cities" could appear not only on the moon, but also on Mars and even in orbit.
