The Oxygen and Volatile Extraction Node (OVEN) Subsystem for Resource Prospector

Abstract

The OVEN (Oxygen and Volatile Extraction Node) Subsystem is part of the RESOLVE (Regolith and Environment Science & Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction) Payload, whose main objective is to verify the presence of water and other volatiles on the lunar surface. The RESOLVE payload is scheduled to fly to the moon as part of the Resource Prospector (RP) in 2019. The OVEN Subsystem accepts regolith (soil) and evolves the volatiles contained in the sample by heating the segment to a temperature of at least 150oC for volatile analysis and as high as 900oC for hydrogen reduction. In general, a regolith segment is deposited into a crucible; the crucible is heated and evolved gases flow to a gas analyzer.