Terrestrial Analogs: Implications for Lunar Lava Tubes
Earlier work has demonstrated that lava tubes did form on the Moon. Comparison of terrestrial lava tubes to their lunar counterparts suggest that they are very similar despite the order...
A Generic Inflatable Structure for a Lunar/Martian Base
The first steps in the human expansion into space, which inevitably will occur during the next century, consist of the establishment of a human-tended base on the Moon followed by human...
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...
Kinetic Interpretations of First Reactivity Experiments on Lunar Basalt Samples
For the first time, water/oxygen production from Apollo program lunar samples has been experimentally demonstrated. The experiments gave extremely encouraging results as all ilmenite was...
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...
Lunar Base Aspects for Biotechnology Industry
A lunar base can provide unique services to biotechnology research, development, and production. A lunar location as well as the vacuum environment can protect experiments from contamination...
Design Criteria for Lunar Construction Equipment
It is anticipated that lunar installations will, from the beginning, require moving and assembly of components and the use of lunar regolith as a construction material. The functional...
Feasibility of Treating Synthetic Greywater by Culturing Waldmann's Dark Green Lettuce in a Hydroponic System
The objective of the research was to treat synthetic greywater in a hydroponic system culturing Waldmanns dark green lettuce (Lactuca Stavia L Var. Crispa L). The process is designed as...
Optical Waveguide Solar Energy System for Lunar Material Processing
This paper summarizes a study of the optical waveguide (OW) solar energy system for lunar material processing. In the OW solar energy system, solar radiation is collected by the concentrator...
Analysis of Glass-Ceramic Production from Lunar Resources
Two simulated regoliths were used to investigate the effects of processing and composition on the properties of lunar-derived glass-ceramics. For the simulant with moderate iron concentration,...
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...
A Surface Exploration Vehicle Testbed for Real-Time Control Exerimentation
Current mission scenarios for return to the moon as well as Mars include some robotic systems; for the precursor unmanned mission, these systems will be required to operate under autonomous...
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...
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