Trying to figure out if there're any easy-to-produce (i.e. no exotic components like vanadium or what-have-you) iron alloys that could be made in a carbon-lacking environment like the Moon, but my research is turning up short. Anyone know anything that could help?
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in reply to @Starra's post:
Lots of iron-nickel alloys in space that are so easy to produce they regularly occur naturally
I suppose I should've specified: iron alloys that are mechanically similar to steel in terms of strength
Maraging steels are chemically similar, low- or no- carbon FeNi alloys, extremely strong, and as a bonus benefit from a very slow heat treat cycle (like you'd get from trying to radiate your heat rather than being able to quench or air blast). while idk about running a foundry in vaccuum a totally anoxic environment should be great structurally. You do need a bit of molybdenum which is certainly available on the moon but doesn't sound fun to refine via ISRU.
Oh huh, never heard of them, but they seem like just the thing! Wonder if other elements more common in the space environment (such as aluminum or titanium) could reasonably substitute for molybdenum...
Oh you'll need those too! I've seen some mention of substituting molybdenum and tungsten in some steel alloys, which sounds promising, but this is all pretty fancy metallurgy so I'd have to dig through some references for a while to say whether that'd work here