What do we know about Luna Titanium?

[False Prophet]

Has it been stated anywhere that when was Luna Titanium created successfully for the first time? Was it considered a military secret back then? And beside the fact that you needed to make it in zero gravity, was there any other difficulties in making Luna Titanium (material, machinery, etc.)?

[Mafty]

Okay sorry to rely on the Gundam wiki again (though they do credit the Entertainment Bible), however I'm unable to find any other English sources.

Luna Titanium started off in the Laboratory wherein Federation Engineers constructed to a newer metal in order make the Mobile Suits as powerful and lightweight as possible. The expense of it meant that initially only the RX 78 could actually be built with this.

Late on Axis and Anaheim electronics were able to manufacture new variants and employ it in mass produced Mobile Suits.

It appears that the formula is artificially produced from Titanium Ore mined from the Moon, and may not exist naturally.

[SonicSP]

I can't speak any of the accuracy but I would wary without in sentence citations. That Entertainment Bible I reference is cited to the name in the first paragraph.

I usually will cite every sentence relating to the info when I'm updating info there cos I want everything to be tracable back to the source.

[Seto Kaiba]

Has it been stated anywhere that when was Luna Titanium created successfully for the first time? Was it considered a military secret back then? And beside the fact that you needed to make it in zero gravity, was there any other difficulties in making Luna Titanium (material, machinery, etc.)?

So, Entertainment Bible 1 pg50 indicates that Luna Titanium armor - AKA "Gundarium Alloy" - is cemented carbide armor with a triple-honeycomb structure that offers much better elasticity than conventional alternatives, but due to the material's fragility and the difficulty of manufacturing it, the ability to mass produce it is low. It doesn't say anything of note about where it was first developed or when.

[Underrated GM Custom]

Has it been stated anywhere that when was Luna Titanium created successfully for the first time? Was it considered a military secret back then? And beside the fact that you needed to make it in zero gravity, was there any other difficulties in making Luna Titanium (material, machinery, etc.)?

For the first question, I'm not aware of a specific date when Luna Titanium was developed; since it's used in the Guntanks armor then presumably it existed before the Guntank was constructed. Mark offered this from Vol 3 of the Zeta Gundam Book series.

After just eight months of development, the [RX series] prototypes were ready for combat testing, and preparations for mass production were proceeding in parallel. One reason why their development was completed in such a short time was that the basic design was derived from studying captured Zakus. Another reason was that the performance of the nuclear fusion reactors that powered them had been increased thanks to Luna Titanium (Gundarium), an alloy developed at Luna II that was used for radiation shielding. The special characteristics of this alloy made it possible for the Gundam and Guncannon to carry beam rifles, compact versions of the mega particle cannons that could previously only be installed in cruiser-class vessels. This alloy was also used as an armor material, and was strong enough to withstand a direct hit from the 120mm machine gun carried by the Zaku.

Although these machines were designed at the Federation Forces' Jaburo base, the prototypes was created in space, partly because Luna Titanium was developed at Luna II and partly because these mobile suits were to be used mainly in space. For the sake of secrecy, the site chosen was Side 7, the furthest point from the Principality of Zeon.

Thread: https://mechatalk.net/viewtopic.php?t=11214

For the 2nd question, the above briefly talks about the secrecy needed for the RX series. Advances in military technology especially in relation to a new fighting vehicle are almost always classified information unless it was produced as part of international research. In this case, the Federation first developed Luna Titanium, since it allows for miniaturizing of beam weapons it's very important they keep a tight hold on it. Later on Axis gets access to Luna Titanium and develops Gundarium Gamma. Mark also mentions that it is very likely Zeon got their hands on Luna Titanium during the OYW and is part of the reason why the Gelgoog had a high power output and reduced weight. (Thread: viewtopic.php?t=14962)

[MechaFox]

Actually, the funny thing with Lunar Titanium is that it sounds like something called a metal foam composite. Basically, a composite that utilizes a metal foam, and in Lunar Titanium's case, it's titanium metal foam.

We've already seen this sort of material in action, given that back in 2016 a US university came out with what quite a few people are calling 'EndoSteel V0.1'.