Microwave Extraction of Water from Lunar Regolith
- Paper number
IAC-11,A3,2.P,1,x9575
- Author
Mr. Christopher Goff, University of Alabama in Huntsville, United States
- Author
Dr. Houssam Toutanji, University of Alabama in Huntsville, United States
- Year
2011
- Abstract
Developing in-situ lunar water resources is essential to the future of manned and unmanned space exploration. Water can be used for potable water or separated to create breathable oxygen (O2), liquid hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuels, or used in the manufacture of other compounds such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or hydrazine (N2H4) which can also be used as rocket propellants. The presence of water on the Moon was confirmed in October 9, 2010, when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) discovered ice in craters on the lunar surface. The water exists in a low-temperature (-170°C and below), low-pressure (10¬-7 Pa) frozen state within the lunar regolith. One promising method of water extraction is through microwave energy penetration of the lunar regolith, which heats and sublimates the lunar ice into water vapor. The vapor will flow through the permeable regolith to be collected on the surface. This paper will investigate the permeability of water vapor flow through lunar regolith for extraction on the lunar surface. The investigation consists of three portions: a permeability of lunar regolith experiment, a model simulation of the experiment for model verification, and a model simulation under lunar conditions. The permeability experiment consists of an unconsolidated media facility which measures the flow rate of several gasses—such as N2 or He—across a sample of simulated lunar regolith (SLR). The measured data are used to determine the permeability of the SLR and the flow characteristics of the transmitted gas. The software’s ability to model real phenomena will be validated using a simulation of the previous permeability experiment in order to utilize COMSOL® Multiphysics for modeling microwave extraction under lunar conditions. Once validated, a simulation of microwave extraction will be developed to determine the expected yield of liberated water vapor. The simulation will use various microwave frequencies and water ice-soil concentrations, as well as experimentally-determined SLR dielectric constants and permeability coefficients. The results for the permeability experiment and the COMSOL simulation, as well as the relative accuracy of the validated model will be presented to demonstrate the feasibility of microwave extraction of water vapor from SLR.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)