A Simple Method of Producing Lunar Soil Simulants for Engineering Studies
This paper suggests that it is possible to obtain large quantities of simulated lunar regolith that can be used for feasibility studies of lunar base construction and excavation machinery...
Reservoir Estimates for the Sulpicius Gallus Region
Estimates presented here show that 1.1?109 metric tons of oxygen could of produced from one of the enriched areas that have been detected by spectrographic...
Dust Levitation on the Moon
The NASA sponsored Lunar Base Working Group at the Institute for Astrophysics, University of New Mexico and the Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University has been investigating...
Habitat Configuration Evaluation Criteria for Moon/Mars
The purpose of this paper is to identify the methodology, evaluation criteria, criteria definitions for evaluating surface habitat configuration concepts for the Moon and Mars. The main...
Thermal Regeneration of Spent Lithium Hydroxide
Exploration of planetary surfaces will require portable life-support systems to provide a continuous supply of breathable air. These systems will need to be regenerable in order to support...
Surface Payload Unloading and Deployment Options for a Lunar Return Mission
While planetary exploration studies have focuses on many areas that are critical to mission success, such as landing space transportation vehicles on other planets, a preferred method...
Utilization of Liquid Carbon Dioxide for Planetary Exploration
The major component of the atmosphere of Venus and Mars is carbon dioxide CO2. This proposal is to use this carbon dioxide for planetary exploration...
Lunar ISRU: An Evolutionary Approach
The goal of this paper is to provide the reader with a vision of the individual steps required to bring ISRU from the current technological readiness level of lab experimentation, to large...
Engineering Implications of Levitating Lunar Dust
In this paper an attempt is made to provide a physical understanding of these various phenomena and their long-term effects on the lunar environment. This understanding is then applied...
Lunar Oxygen Production - A Maturing Technology
Research on oxygen production from lunar rock and soil has made significant progress in the past two years. An extensive series of experiments on natural and synthetic analogs has concentrated...
Oxygen Generation from Synthetic Moon Soil Using a Plasma Reactor
A series of experiments were performed to evaluate the potential for generating oxygen from silica powder, alumina powder and a synthetic moon soil powder. A non-transferred arc plasma...
Lunar Oxygen Production in a Hydrogen Cold Plasma
This paper examines the concept of oxygen production from unbeneficiated lunar regolith using a non-equilibrium or 'cold' hydrogen plasma. An experimental investigation has indicated that...
Carbon Formation Theory for Space Oxygen Processes
Production of oxygen from the Martian atmosphere or lunar soil and the recovery of oxygen in manned space environments may include carbon formation from CO as a unit process. Thermodynamic...
Oxygen from Lunar Soil via Fluorination
This paper considers oxygen extraction from lunar soil via fluorination, for reasons of its high effectivity of oxygen release from most silicates. In addition to theoretical investigations,...
Sintering Bricks on the Moon
Sintering of full-scale 'bricks' from lunar soil simulant materials can be accomplished by radiant heating to 1100?C for approximately 2 hours, followed by slow cooling. Small-scale precompaction...
Efficient Path Planning Strategies for Unmanned Rover Vehicles
Path planning strategies are studied using an optimization model. Four main sub-models are discussed that contribute to the computing of minimum energy vehicle path planning. These are:...
A Minimum Mars Mission Approach
The purpose of this paper is to identify the mission architecture required to perform a human exploration mission to Mars using a minimum amount of resources. This mission will send three...
Onboard Image Processing With Transputers
A transputer based onboard computer for planetary vehicles is being designed in the KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (RMKI), Budapest, Hungary. In this paper we...
Fiber Optic Chemical Sensors on Mars
A fiber optic chemical sensing instrument is described that will measure the reactivity of the martian soil and atmosphere. The self-contained instrument monitors reflectivity changes...
Transfer Vehicle Sizing for Missions to Mars
The purpose of this study is to analyze the interactions between mission and vehicle design parameters, and determine how the selection of a particular trajectory and transit time affects...
Return to search