Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant
Nearly a decade ago the DOD Clementine lunar orbital mission obtained data indicating that the permanently shaded regions at the lunar poles may have permanently frozen water in the lunar soil. Currently NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, RLEP-2, is planned to land at the lunar pole to d...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20070018802 2023-05-15T17:57:06+02:00 Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant Ethridge, Edwin C. Kaukler, William Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available [2007] application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20070018802 unknown Document ID: 20070018802 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20070018802 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF-2007); 11-15 Feb. 2007; Albuquerque, NM; United States 2007 ftnasantrs 2019-07-21T01:39:51Z Nearly a decade ago the DOD Clementine lunar orbital mission obtained data indicating that the permanently shaded regions at the lunar poles may have permanently frozen water in the lunar soil. Currently NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, RLEP-2, is planned to land at the lunar pole to determine if water is present. The detection and extraction of water from the permanently frozen permafrost is an important goal for NASA. Extraction of water from lunar permafrost has a high priority in the In-Situ Resource Utilization, ISRU, community for human life support and as a fuel. The use of microwave processing would permit the extraction of water without the need to dig, drill, or excavate the lunar surface. Microwave heating of regolith is potentially faster and more efficient than any other heating methods due to the very low thermal conductivity of the lunar regolith. Also, microwaves can penetrate into the soil permitting water removal from deep below the lunar surface. A cryogenic vacuum test facility was developed for evaluating the use of microwave heating and water extraction from a lunar regolith permafrost simulant. Water is obtained in a cryogenic cold trap even with soil conditions below 0 C. The results of microwave extraction of water experiments will be presented. Other/Unknown Material permafrost NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration |
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Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration Ethridge, Edwin C. Kaukler, William Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant |
topic_facet |
Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration |
description |
Nearly a decade ago the DOD Clementine lunar orbital mission obtained data indicating that the permanently shaded regions at the lunar poles may have permanently frozen water in the lunar soil. Currently NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, RLEP-2, is planned to land at the lunar pole to determine if water is present. The detection and extraction of water from the permanently frozen permafrost is an important goal for NASA. Extraction of water from lunar permafrost has a high priority in the In-Situ Resource Utilization, ISRU, community for human life support and as a fuel. The use of microwave processing would permit the extraction of water without the need to dig, drill, or excavate the lunar surface. Microwave heating of regolith is potentially faster and more efficient than any other heating methods due to the very low thermal conductivity of the lunar regolith. Also, microwaves can penetrate into the soil permitting water removal from deep below the lunar surface. A cryogenic vacuum test facility was developed for evaluating the use of microwave heating and water extraction from a lunar regolith permafrost simulant. Water is obtained in a cryogenic cold trap even with soil conditions below 0 C. The results of microwave extraction of water experiments will be presented. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Ethridge, Edwin C. Kaukler, William |
author_facet |
Ethridge, Edwin C. Kaukler, William |
author_sort |
Ethridge, Edwin C. |
title |
Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant |
title_short |
Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant |
title_full |
Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant |
title_fullStr |
Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant |
title_full_unstemmed |
Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith Simulant |
title_sort |
microwave extraction of water from lunar regolith simulant |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20070018802 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20070018802 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20070018802 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766165474409709568 |