The next unmaned explorer to land on the moon should be provided with a traditional children's style bucket and spade.

The explorer's robotic arm will use the bucket and spade to construct a series of sand castles using the lunar rock and dust as their raw material.

I imagine the lunar dust will have to be enfused with water to provide it with some structural cohesion. A colourful beach umbrella (which protects the sand castles from the sun) completes the scene, along with a camera to beam back the set up to a terrestrial tv channel.

Sand Castles On The Moon serve no useful purpose, but could be the pathfinder for more elaborate lunar sculptures made by gathering, assembling or carving into what's already there.... Mare Rushmore here we come!
-- xenzag, Sep 19 2025

Discussion from 15 years ago https://www.reddit...._of_lunar_regolith/
[pocmloc, Sep 19 2025]

NASA are already working on it https://www.nasa.go...to-dig-on-the-moon/
[pocmloc, Sep 19 2025]

I doubt water would be a good binder, for various reasons.
Might be an interesting project to develop something suitable, though.
-- Loris, Sep 19 2025


I leave all of those pesky details to the chemisty and physics heads.
-- xenzag, Sep 19 2025


Interesting discussion on moisture, so perhaps not needed after all. The NASA digger is one thing, but I want sand castles!
-- xenzag, Sep 19 2025


The agency involved can charge people by the hour to use the tools. I wonder how much a company would pay to draw their logo on the moon.
-- Voice, Sep 19 2025


//Epoxy would work. It cures fine in a vacuum, would cure/be completely stable in the sun.//

Unfortunately Epoxies are not impervious to ultraviolet light, and the sun's light on the moon is unfiltered. The best you can do is make them more resistant.
The umbrella might offer some protection, too, but not from all angles.
-- Loris, Sep 19 2025


I'm sure the umbrella could be motorised to provide continuous shade for the little beach scene.
-- xenzag, Sep 19 2025



random, halfbakery