In-situ Release of Solar Wind Gases from Lunar Soil
A concept is described which has the potential to perform the in-situ heating of the lunar regolith in order to release the solar wind gases. The poor thermal conductivity of the lunar...
Isotopic Separation of ?He/4He From Solar Wind Gases Evolved from the Lunar Regolith
The potential benefits of 3He when utilized in a nuclear fusion reactor to provide clean, safe electricity in the 21st century for the world's inhabitants...
Sulfur as a Lunar Resource
Sulfur on the Moon may prove to be a satisfactory replacement in some uses for lighter volatile elements and their compounds. Although sulfur is not richly concentrated on the Moon, it...
Chemical Analysis in Space Exploration: A Lunar-based Chemical Analysis Laboratory (LBCAL)
Many questions need to be answered before humans can be supported for extended periods in space - an environment inimical to terrestrial life. While some questions of a physiological nature...
Recent Developments of the Carbotek Process for Production of Lunar Oxygen
Carbotek and Shimizu Corporation are conducting joint development work on the further development of the Carbotek Process to produce oxygen from lunar ilemnite by hydrogen reduction. The...
Hydrogen Reduction of Lunar Soil and Simulants
Carbotek, Inc., and the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) are cooperating on further development of the Carbotek process to produce oxygen from lunar ilmenite by hydrogen...
Lunar Oxygen ? The Reduction of Glass by Hydrogen
The direct reduction of volcanic glass by hydrogen has been proposed as a method of extracting oxygen from the lunar soil. Experiments using lunar simulant glasses reacted with flowing...
A Modified Sulfate Process to Lunar Oxygen
A modified sulfate process which produces oxygen from iron oxide-bearing minerals in lunar soil is under development. Reaction rates of ilmenite in varying strength sulfuric acid have...
Steady State Composition with Low Fe?+ Concentrations for Efficient O2 Production by Magma Electrolysis of Lunar Soils
Parameters are estimated for a hypothetical, well stirred, continuous-feed electrolytic cell that converts 20% of a lunar soil feedstock to O2 gas,...
Production of Oxygen by Electro-Reduction of Lunar Ores
Anorthositic Lunar ores contain approximately 42 wt. pct. of oxygen. An electrolytic dissociation of the ore can provide a rich source of gaseous oxygen with silicon, aluminum, calcium,...
Production of Lunar Oxygen, Iron, Magnesium, and Silicon by Aqueous Hydrofluoric Acid Leaching
Aqueous hydrofluoric acid (HF) processing of lunar regolith offers the versatile options of lunar iron and oxygen production by room temperature electrolysis as well as the extraction...
Materials and Structures Synergistic with In-Space Materials Utilization
The objective of this paper is to clearly demonstrate the significant advances made in recent months toward actual hardware realizations of various concepts for the utilization of in-space...
Lunar Liquid Oxygen Production Facilities
Production of oxygen beyond Earth's gravity well has been shown to be an economic asset for interplanetary travel using chemical combustion propulsion. Requirements for lunar liquid oxygen...
Power Sources for Lunar Bases
Working and living on the Moon requires artificial power sources both to operate equipment and to maintain life. This paper briefly surveys the power sources designed or proposed to support...
INTERLUNE Concept for Helium-3 Fusion Development
Many considerations suggest that in the 21st Century, deuterium/helium-3 (D-3He) fusion will be the electricity generation system of choice to replace...
On-Orbit Chipless Cutting and Tube Welding in Space Station Freedom
Micro-gravity and strict environmental constraints of the laboratory, Habitation and other manned structures which comprise Space Station Freedom demand investigation into innovative processes...
Structural Studies of Two Aerobrake Heatshield Panel Concepts
Structural sizing and performance data are presented for two different aerobrake hexagonal heatshield panel structural concepts. One concept features a sandwich construction with an aluminum...
Cargo Transport to the Lunar Surface Using a Three Rotor Sling
The three rotor sling, a momentum transfer device, is described. The dynamics of multi-rotor systems are explained, and the three rotor system is shown to be favored over one and two rotor...
Beneficiation of Lunar Rocks and Regolith: Concepts and Difficulties
Considerations of the resources which can provide feedstocks of ilmenite, glass, agglutinates, anorthite, etc. at a lunar base require an appreciation of the geology of the situation....
Mobile Continuous Lunar Excavation
The purpose of this paper is to explore the two main problems regarding current approaches to lunar mining and to recommend three candidate solutions which will be shown to have potentially...
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