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Results for “lunar processing”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Thermochemical energy storage for a lunar base

A thermochemical solar energy storage concept involving the reversible reaction CaO + H2O yields Ca(OH)2 is proposed as a power system element for a lunar base. The operation and components of such a system are described. The CaO/H2O system is capable of generating electric power during both the day and night. Mass of the required amount of CaO is neglected since it is obtained from lunar soil. Potential technical problems, such as reactor design and lunar soil processing, are reviewed.

Perez-Davis, Marla E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer for the Lunar Resource Mapper

One of the early Space Exploration Initiatives will be a lunar orbiter to map the elemental composition of the Moon. This mission will support further lunar exploration and habitation and will provide a valuable dataset for understanding lunar geological processes. The proposed payload will consist of the gamma ray and neutron spectrometers which are discussed, an x ray fluorescence imager, and possibly one or two other instruments.

Moss, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1992

The transportation depot: An orbiting vehicle support facility

This paper describes the details of an effort to produce conceptual designs for an orbiting platform, called a transportation depot, to handle assembly and processing of lunar, Martian, and related vehicles. High-level requirements for such a facility were established, and several concepts were developed to meet those requirements. By showing that the critical rigid-body momentum characteristics of each concept are similar to those of the dual-keel space station, some insight was gained about the controllability and utility of this type of facility. Finally, several general observations were made that highlight the advantages and disadvantages of particular design features.

Kaszubowski, Martin J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Evaluation of infrared emission spectroscopy for mapping the Moon's surface composition from lunar orbit

Infrared thermal emission spectroscopy is evaluated for its possible application to compositional mapping of the Moon's surface from lunar orbit. Principles of the mid-IR (approximately 4-25 microns) technique, previous lunar ground-based observations, and laboratory studies of Moon samples are reviewed and summarized. A lunar thermal emission spectrometer experiment is described, patterned after a similar instrument on the Mars Observer spacecraft. Thermal emission spectrometry from a polar-orbiting lunar spacecraft could provide a valuable mapping tool to aid in exploration for lunar resources and help provide understanding of the origin of the Moon and history of lunar surface processes.

Nash, Douglas B.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Granular Material Flows with Interstitial Fluid Effects

The research focused on experimental measurements of the rheological properties of liquid-solid and granular flows. In these flows, the viscous effects of the interstitial fluid, the inertia of the fluid and particles, and the collisional interactions of the particles may all contribute to the flow mechanics. These multiphase flows include industrial problems such as coal slurry pipelines, hydraulic fracturing processes, fluidized beds, mining and milling operation, abrasive water jet machining, and polishing and surface erosion technologies. In addition, there are a wide range of geophysical flows such as debris flows, landslides and sediment transport. In extraterrestrial applications, the study of transport of particulate materials is fundamental to the mining and processing of lunar and Martian soils and the transport of atmospheric dust (National Research Council 2000). The recent images from Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft dramatically depict the complex sand and dust flows on Mars, including dune formation and dust avalanches on the slip-face of dune surfaces. These Aeolian features involve a complex interaction of the prevailing winds and deposition or erosion of the sediment layer; these features make a good test bed for the verification of global circulation models of the Martian atmosphere.

Hunt, Melany L.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Progress of the NASAUSGS Lunar Regolith Simulant Project

Beginning in 2004 personnel at MSFC began serious efforts to develop a new generation of lunar simulants. The first two products were a replication of the previous JSC-1 simulant under a contract to Orbitec and a major workshop in 2005 on future simulant development. It was recognized in early 2006 there were serious limitations with the standard approach of simply taking a single terrestrial rock and grinding it. To a geologist, even a cursory examination of the Lunar Sourcebook shows that matching lunar heterogeneity, crystal size, relative mineral abundances, lack of H2O, plagioclase chemistry and glass abundance simply can not be done with any simple combination of terrestrial rocks. Thus the project refocused its efforts and approached simulant development in a new and more comprehensive manner, examining new approaches in simulant development and ways to more accurately compare simulants to actual lunar materials. This led to a multi-year effort with five major tasks running in parallel. The five tasks are Requirements, Lunar Analysis, Process Development, Feed Stocks, and Standards.

Rickman, Douglas↗
NASA NTRS2010

Process to Produce Iron Nanoparticle Lunar Dust Simulant Composite

A document discusses a method for producing nanophase iron lunar dust composite simulant by heating a mixture of carbon black and current lunar simulant types (mixed oxide including iron oxide) at a high temperature to reduce ionic iron into elemental iron. The product is a chemically modified lunar simulant that can be attracted by a magnet, and has a surface layer with an iron concentration that is increased during the reaction. The iron was found to be -iron and Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The simulant produced with this method contains iron nanoparticles not available previously, and they are stable in ambient air. These nanoparticles can be mass-produced simply.

Hung, Ching-cheh↗
NASA NTRS2011

Elemental Mercury Diffusion Processes and Concentration at the Lunar Poles

In 2009, the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) spectrograph onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft made the first detection of element mercury (Hg) vapor in the lunar exosphere after the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Centaur rocket impacted into the Cabeus crater in the southern polar region of the Moon. The lunar regolith core samples from the Apollo missions determined that Hg had a devolatilized pattern with a concentration gradient increasing with depth, in addition to a layered pattern suggesting multiple episodes of burial and volatile loss. Hg migration on the lunar surface resulted in cold trapping at the poles. We have modeled the rate at which indigenous Hg is lost from the regolith through diffusion out of lunar grains. We secondly modeled the migration of Hg vapor in the exosphere and estimated the rate of cold-trapping at the poles using a Monte Carlo technique. The Hg vapor may be lost from the exosphere via ionization, Jeans escape, or re-impact into the surface causing reabsorption.

Moxley, Frederick↗
NASA NTRS2012

High-Resolution and Analytical TEM Investigation of Space Radiation Processing Effects in Primitive Solar System Materials and Airless Planetary Surface Environments

Energetic ions present in the diverse plasma conditions in space play a significant role in the formation and modification of solid phases found in environments ranging from the interstellar medium (ISM) to the surfaces of airless bodies such as asteroids and the Moon. These effects are often referred to as space radiation processing, a term that encompasses changes induced in natural space-exposed materials that may be only structural, such as in radiation-induced amorphization, or may involve ion-induced nanoscale to microscale chemical changes, as occurs in preferential sputtering and ion-beam mixing. Ion sputtering in general may also be responsible for partial or complete erosion of space exposed materials, in some instances possibly bringing about the complete destruction of free-floating solid grains in the ISM or in circumstellar nebular dust clouds. We report here on two examples of the application of high-resolution and analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to problems in space radiation processing. The first problem concerns the role of space radiation processing in controlling the overall fate of Fe sulfides as hosts for sulfur in the ISM. The second problem concerns the known, but as yet poorly quantified, role of space radiation processing in lunar space weathering.

Christoffersen, R.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Mapping the Predicted Solar Wind Hydrogen Flux in Lunar South Pole Craters

The solar wind hydrogen flux is mapped onto the topography of four lunar south pole craters; Shackleton, Haworth, Shoemaker and Faustini. Using altimetry data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we apply an analytic plasma model to map the hydrogen flux onto the surface, time-averaged over a lunar rotation cycle. We present a series of maps including the average flux, geomagnetic modulation, and ion flow energy. These results are intended to inform further studies of dynamic lunar surface processes, such as volatile implantation, sputtering,and weathering. As an example, we also present a map of a surface ice sheet lifetime based on ion sputtering.

William M Farrell↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Characterization of NU-LHT-4M Lunar Regolith Simulant Using Different Raman Configurations

As much as possible, structures to help sustain a long-term human presence on the moon will be constructed via in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) from lunar regolith. Various processes have been proposed to make lunar regolith-based construction materials, but one complication is that the lunar regolith is relatively complex in terms of composition and can vary quite significantly from one site to another. Some of these methods to make lunar regolith-based construction materials are quite sensitive to the composition and so in-situ methods for evaluating the composition of the lunar regolith could be critical. Various analytical instrumentation has been proposed for in-situ characterization of the composition of regolith on planetary bodies. Raman spectroscopy has been suggested and has some advantages over other in-situ techniques, such as potential for relatively high spatial resolution, direct determination of the mineralogy (while other methods may only infer the mineralogy), nondestructive analysis, relatively simple instrument configurations, and minimal sample preparation/handling. For example, Raman instrumentation has already been deployed in rover-based missions to Mars. Previously, we developed the Standoff Ultracompact Micro-Raman Sensor (SUCR), which is a portable Raman spectroscopy instrument capable to be integrated into a rover or onto a lander. Here, we present work on Raman spectroscopy measurements of NU-LHT-4M lunar simulant using three different Raman instruments with different configurations for collecting Raman data with the goal to explore the effect of these different configurations on the results, especially for use in a lunar environment.

Raman Spectroscopy↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Manufacturing and Metal Extraction Lunar Technology (MMELT)

Extraction processes of oxygen from regolith under development include carbothermal, molten regolith electrolysis (MRE), ionic liquids, and others, all of which result in a metal slag byproduct. The separation of some of these metals from the slag byproduct have been accomplished on small scales. However, no system currently exists that can extract aluminum, from these processes at scale, to create suitable feedstocks for manufacturing. Funding for MMELT will be used to develop a demonstration of the first end-to-end process to additively manufacture aluminum wire from lunar regolith in a simulated environment.

Manufacturing↗
NASA NTRS2024

Making Rocket Fuel from Moon Rocks: Silicon-Liquid Oxygen (SiLOX) as a Hybrid Propellant

The research team at KSC explored the controlled passivation and burning of Lunar soil constituents in an oxygen combustion vessel for use as an in-space resource. Technologies such as carbothermal reduction (CaRD) and molten regolith electrolysis (MRE) are being developed to remove the oxygen for use and leave constituents in an enriched state. This leaves behind reduced compounds that can react with oxygen for heat generation. The team at KSC looked to explore the feasibility of controlling such reactions in a pure oxygen environment for potential technology integrations. Our proof-of-concept demonstrations have given promise to many potential applications for the controlled burning or combustion of nano- and porous silicon for silicon based, Lunar economy applications. The team at KSC was able to control the burn rate and total energy released effectively via pre-treatment of the nano-silicon in a muffle furnace at varying temperatures at one-hour durations. We created a new capability at KSC with the supporting safety documentation and procedural writeup. Our work highlights the need for greater investigation to understand the regenerative properties of the proposed porous silicon discs, and its viability of a thermal and electrical energy source. This work has demonstrated the proof-of-concept that elemental silicon is able to be combusted with gaseous and liquid oxygen in a controlled manner. This report provides such evidence as well as theoretical calculations and assumptions made for technologies that would be useful in Lunar surface operations with in-situ resources. The concepts are based on the assumption that oxygen extraction technologies from Lunar regolith processing will result in enriched silicon that may be adapted for the presented use cases. Additionally, the energy storage concept is able to be adapted for terrestrial use and integrated into already existing infrastructure.

Kenneth Engeling↗
NASA NTRS2025

Sulfur outgassing and in-gassing in lunar orange glass beads and implications for 33S “Anomaly” in the Moon

Our recent investigations have discovered inward diffusion (in-gassing) of moderately volatile elements (MVEs; e.g., Na, K and Cu) from volcanic gas into volcanic beads/droplets. In this work, we examine the distribution of sulfur in lunar orange glass beads. Our analyses reveal that sulfur exhibits a non-uniform distribution across the beads, forming “U” or “W” shaped profiles typical of in-gassing. A model developed to assess sulfur contributions from different sources (original magmatic sulfur versus atmospheric in-gassed sulfur) in the orange beads indicates that atmospheric sulfur in-gassed during eruption contributes approximately 9–24 % to the total sulfur content of an orange bead, averaging around 16 %. This in-gassed sulfur is derived from the eruption plume, where atmospheric sulfur could undergo photochemical reactions induced by UV light, leading to mass independent fractionation and a distinct sulfur isotope signature. Interestingly, a recent study discovered a small mass independent isotope fractionation of sulfur in lunar orange glass beads in drive tube 74002/1 and a lack of such mass independent isotope fractionation in black glass beads in the same lunar sample. This finding contrasts with sulfur in lunar basalts, which typically exhibit mass dependent fractionation. With our work, the observed mass independent fractionation signal in sulfur isotopes of orange beads can be attributed to the in-gassing of photolytic sulfur in the optically thin part of the eruption plume where UV light can penetrate. Using the sulfur isotope data of lunar orange beads, we estimate that the Δ33S value of atmospheric sulfur is approximately −0.18 ‰. Our study provides new insights into the complex dynamics of volatile elements in lunar volcanic processes, highlighting the role of in-gassing in shaping sulfur isotope signatures in volcanic glass beads.

Xue Su↗
NASA NTRS1990

A comparison of microwave versus direct solar heating for lunar brick production

Two processing techniques considered suitable for producing bricks from lunar regolith are examined: direct solar heating and microwave heating. An analysis was performed to compare the two processes in terms of the amount of power and time required to fabricate bricks of various sizes. Microwave heating was shown to be significantly faster than solar heating for rapid production of realistic-size bricks. However, the relative simplicity of the solar collector(s) used for the solar furnace compared to the equipment necessary for microwave generation may present an economic tradeoff.

Yankee, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Development of mass spectrometric techniques applicable to the search for organic matter in the lunar crust

Data processing techniques were developed to measure with high precision and sensitivity the line spectra produced by a high resolution mass spectrometer. The most important aspect of this phase was the interfacing of a modified precision microphotometer-comparator with a computer and the improvement of existing software to serve the special needs of the investigation of lunar samples. In addition, a gas-chromatograph mass spectrometer system was interfaced with the same computer to allow continuous recording of mass spectra on a gas chromatographic effluent and efficient evaluation of the resulting data. These techniques were then used to detect and identify organic compounds present in the samples returned by the Apollo 11 and 12 missions.

Biemann, K.↗