A team of researchers has unveiled a creative solution to one of space exploration’s biggest hurdles—how to generate power on the Moon. Now, a new study shows that “moonglass” can be fabricated from lunar dust and used to make solar panels more efficiently and cheaply than transporting them from Earth.

Vision of future solar cell fabrication on the moon, utilizing raw regolith. Credit: Sercan Özen. Moon dust—the same stuff that sticks to astronauts’ boots—may one day help power future lunar missions.

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,