Scientists have created solar cells using simulated Moon dust, potentially solving one of space exploration’s biggest challenges: how to generate reliable energy far from Earth.
These new cells, made with perovskite and moonglass, are lighter, cheaper, and more radiation-resistant than traditional space solar panels. Even better, they can be made using lunar materials, drastically reducing launch costs and making future Moon bases more feasible. If successful in real lunar conditions, these Moon-made solar panels could power entire off-world colonies.
Powering Space with Moon Dust
The same lunar dust that sticks to astronauts’ boots could one day help power their habitats. In a study published today (April 3) in the journal Device, researchers developed solar cells using simulated Moon dust. These cells efficiently convert sunlight into electricity, resist damage from radiation, and could reduce the need to transport heavy materials from Earth, solving one of the major challenges of space exploration: generating reliable energy.
“The solar cells used in space now are amazing, reaching efficiencies of 30% to even 40%, but that efficiency comes with a price,” says lead researcher Felix Lang of the University of Potsdam, Germany. “They are very expensive and are relatively heavy because they use glass or a thick foil as cover. It’s hard to justify lifting all these cells into space.”
Turning Moon Rock into Moonglass
Lang and his team are exploring a more sustainable alternative: building solar cells using materials already found on the Moon. Instead of shipping glass from Earth, they propose using lunar regolith – the Moon’s loose, rocky surface – to create glass for solar panels. This single change could reduce a spacecraft’s launch mass by 99.4%, slash transport costs by 99%, and support the development of long-term lunar bases.
To test the idea, the researchers melted a substance designed to simulate Moon dust into moonglass and used it to build a new kind of solar cell. They crafted the cells by pairing moonglass with perovskite—a class of crystals that are cheaper, easier to make, and very efficient in turning sunlight into electricity. For every gram of material sent to space, the new panels produced up to 100 times more energy than traditional solar panels.
More Energy, Less Weight
“If you cut the weight by 99%, you don’t need ultra-efficient 30% solar cells, you just make more of them on the Moon,” says Lang. “Plus, our cells are more stable against radiation, while the others would degrade over time.”
When the team zapped the solar cells with space-grade radiation, the moonglass versions outperformed the Earth-made ones. Standard glass slowly browns in space, blocking sunlight and reducing efficiency. But moonglass has a natural brown tint from impurities in the Moon dust, which stabilizes the glass, prevents it from further darkening, and makes the cells more resistant to radiation.
Simple Process, Surprising Results
Making moonglass, the team found, is surprisingly simple. It does not require complex purification and concentrated sunlight alone can provide the extreme temperatures needed to melt lunar regolith into glass. By tweaking the thickness of the moonglass and fine-tuning the solar cell’s composition, the team managed to achieve 10% efficiency. With clearer moonglass that lets in more light, they believe they could reach 23%.
Still, the Moon poses challenges that Earth doesn’t. Lower gravity could change how moonglass forms. The solvents currently used to process perovskite won’t work in the Moon’s vacuum. Wild temperature swings could threaten the materials’ stability. To find out if their moon dust solar cells are truly viable, the team hopes to launch a small-scale experiment to the Moon to test them out in real lunar conditions.
Building a Moon-Powered Future
“From extracting water for fuel to building houses with lunar bricks, scientists have been finding ways to use Moon dust,” says Lang. “Now, we can turn it into solar cells too, possibly providing the energy a future Moon city will need.”
Reference: “Moon photovoltaics utilizing lunar regolith and halide perovskites” by Julián Mauricio Cuervo-Ortiz, Juan Carlos Ginés Palomares, Sercan Ozen, Marlene Härtel, Sema Sarisozen, Alina Dittwald, Georgios Kourkafas, Andrés-Felipe Castro-Méndez, Francisco Peña-Camargo, Biruk Alebachew Seid, Jürgen Bundesman, Andrea Denker, Heinz-Christoph Neitzert, Dieter Neher, Enrico Stoll, Stefan Linke and Felix Lang, 3 April 2025, Device.
DOI: 10.1016/j.device.2025.100747
This research was supported by funding from the Volkswagen Foundation for funding via the Freigeist Q14 Program.
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