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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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NASA NTRS2013

Microwave Sinterator Freeform Additive Construction System (MS-FACS)

The harmful properties of lunar dust, such as small size, glass composition, abnormal surface area, and coatings of imbedded nanophase iron, lead to a unique coupling of the dust with microwave radiation. This coupling can be exploited for rapid sintering of lunar soil for use as a construction material that can be formed to take on an infinite number of shapes and sizes. This work describes a system concept for building structures on the lunar surface using lunar regolith (soil). This system uses the ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex- Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) mobility system as a positioning system with a microwave print head (similar to that of a smaller-scale 3D printer). A processing system delivers the lunar regolith to the microwave print head, where the microwave print head/chamber lays down a layer of melted regolith. An arm on the ATHLETE system positions the layer depending on the desired structure.

Howe, Alan S.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Overview of the LADEE Ultraviolet-visible Spectrometer: Design, Performance and Planned Operations

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is an orbital lunar science mission currently under development to address the goals of the 2003 National Research Council decadal survey, the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group Roadmap, and the "Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon" (SCEM) report, and has been recommended for execution by the 2011 Planetary Missions Decadal Survey. The mission s focus is to study the pristine state of the lunar atmosphere and dust environment prior to possible lunar exploration activities by countries, including the United States, China, India, and Japan, among others. Activity on the lunar surface has the potential of altering the tenuous lunar atmosphere, but changing the type and concentration of gases in the atmosphere. Before these activities occur it is important to make measurements of the current lunar atmosphere in its unmodified state. LADEE will determine the composition of the lunar atmosphere and investigate the processes that control its distribution and variability, including sources, sinks, and surface interactions. It will monitor variations in known gases, such as sodium, potassium, argon and helium, and will search for other, as-yet-undetected gases of both lunar and extra-lunar origin. LADEE will also determine whether dust is present in the lunar exosphere, and reveal the processes that contribute to its sources and variability. Launch is planned for August, 2013.

Colaprete, A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 11th, Houston, TX, March 17-21, 1980, Proceedings. Volume 1 - Igneous processes and remote sensing

Topics discussed include basaltic studies, planetary differentiation (e.g., lunar highland rocks), and remote sensing studies of chemical composition, mineralogic composition, and physical surface properties. Particular attention is given to the petrology and chemistry of basaltic fragments from the Apollo 11 soil; a model of early lunar differentiation; rocks of the early lunar crust; refractory and moderately volatile element abundances in the earth, moon, and meteorites; the effects of overlapping optical absorption bands of pyroxene and glass on the reflectance spectra of lunar soils; and the characterization of Martian surface materials from earth-based radar.

Merrill, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Extraction processes for the production of aluminum, titanium, iron, magnesium, and oxygen and nonterrestrial sources

The suitability of existing terrestrial extractive metallurgical processes for the production of Al, Ti, Fe, Mg, and O2 from nonterrestrial resources is examined from both thermodynamic and kinetic points of view. Carbochlorination of lunar anorthite concentrate in conjunction with Alcoa electrolysis process for Al; carbochlorination of lunar ilmenite concentrate followed by Ca reduction of TiO2; and subsequent reduction of Fe2O3 by H2 for Ti and Fe, respectively, are suggested. Silicothermic reduction of olivine concentrate was found to be attractive for the extraction of Mg becaue of the technological knowhow of the process. Aluminothermic reduction of olivine is the other possible alternative for the production of magnesium. The large quantities of carbon monoxide generated in the metal extraction processes can be used to recover carbon and oxygen by a combination of the following methods: (1) simple disproportionation of CO,(2) methanation of CO and electrolysis of H2O, and (3) solid-state electrolysis of gas mixtures containing CO, CO2, and H2O. The research needed for the adoption of earth-based extraction processes for lunar and asteroidal minerals is outlined.

D Bhogeswara Rao↗
NASA NTRS1997

Scaling Impact-Melt and Crater Dimensions: Implications for the Lunar Cratering Record

The consequences of impact on the solid bodies of the solar system are manifest and legion. Although the visible effects on planetary surfaces, such as the Moon's, are the most obvious testimony to the spatial and temporal importance of impacts, less dramatic chemical and petrographic characteristics of materials affected by shock abound. Both the morphologic and petrologic aspects of impact cratering are important in deciphering lunar history, and, ideally, each should complement the other. In practice, however, a gap has persisted in relating large-scale cratering processes to petrologic and geochemical data obtained from lunar samples. While this is due in no small part to the fact that no Apollo mission unambiguously sampled deposits of a large crater, it can also be attributed to the general state of our knowledge of cratering phenomena, particularly those accompanying large events. The most common shock-metamorphosed lunar samples are breccias, but a substantial number are impact-melt rocks. Indeed, numerous workers have called attention to the importance of impact-melt rocks spanning a wide range of ages in the lunar sample collection. Photogeologic studies also have demonstrated the widespread occurrence of impact-melt lithologies in and around lunar craters. Thus, it is clear that impact melting has been a fundamental process operating throughout lunar history, at scales ranging from pits formed on individual regolith grains to the largest impact basins. This contribution examines the potential relationship between impact melting on the Moon and the interior morphologies of large craters and peaking basins. It then examines some of the implications of impact melting at such large scales for lunar-sample provenance and evolution of the lunar crust.

Cintala , Mark J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Degradation of the lunar vacuum by a moon base

Several industrial processes requiring high and ultra-high vacuum similar to the lunar vacuum are outlined. The effects of a 20-person lunar base and a 250-person industrial facility on this vacuum are discussed. It is shown that exhaust from transport spacecraft and leakage from the habitat will be comparable to the daytime gas pressure for the 20-person base, and will degrade the vacuum to the range of 2 x 10 to the -9th torr for the use of 250-person facility. This will result in replacing the mostly nonreactive gases hydrogen, helium, and neon with more reactive gases containing carbon and oxygen. This vacuum is still good enough to perform many important vacuum processes such as plasma-deposition of amorphous silicon for solar cells, but processes such as molecular beam epitaxy or locating an intersecting beam accelerator on the moon will require additional vacuum pumping.

Landis, Geoffrey↗
NASA NTRS2015

Solar Ion Processing of Itokawa Grains: Constraints on Surface Exposure Times

Analytical TEM observations obtained to date reveal that a significant sub-population of grains returned from the surface of asteroid Itokawa have had their outer 30-100 nm processed by space weathering effects. Although the effects include some surface deposition of condensed impact vapor and isolated impact melt splashes, much of the width of the space weathered outer margins or "rims" on grains is derived from solar wind processing of the original host grain. Similar to what has long been reported for some lunar grains, the ion-processed rims on Itokawa grains exhibit varing degrees and depths of penetration of atomic-displacement ion damage, resulting in complete amorphization for some rims (particularly in plagioclase), or formation of highly defective but still crystalline structures in others (particularly in pyroxene and olivine). Possibly different from lunar grains, however, is the presence of isolated internal cavities or voids in Itokawa grain rims, which may be implantation "bubbles" due to accumulating implanted solar wind H and/or He. For a given mineral exposed at a particular set of long term solar wind conditions, the level of ion damage in a given grain rim, the depth of damage penetration represented by the rim width, and the formation or lack of formation of implantation bubbles can all be linked to the time spent by the grain in an uncovered state on the topmost, space-exposed, regolith surface. For the lunar case, we have previously shown that with reasonable assumptions about solar wind characteristics over time, a model can be developed to estimate this exposure time based on the width of amorphous rims on lunar grains. Here we report on an expansion of the model to cover exposure time information contained in the array of solar ion-induced features in Itokawa grains.

Christoffersen, R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Validation of Rendered Natural and Artificial Lighting Environments in Real Time Lunar South Pole Simulations

NASA’s Artemis campaign is making heavy use of simulation to help return humans to the lunar surface by the end of the decade. There are several aspects of the lunar surface and its environment which must be accurately modeled before these simulations can be relied upon to influence decisions being made under these programs. Digital Lunar Exploration Sites, a paper submitted to the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference, outlined the process used to generate the lunar surface in a digital environment. This paper will expand upon this topic and delve into the steps being taken by the NASA Exploration Systems Simulations (NExSyS) team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) to properly verify and validate these simulations, with a focus on the visual aspects of the environment. Natural lighting validation relies in part on the wealth of data generated during the Apollo program. Many images taken by Apollo astronauts on the lunar surface have been replicated in the simulated environments to gain confidence in the accuracy of terrain and lighting models. However, because the environment the Artemis astronauts will experience at the Lunar South Pole (LSP) is dissimilar from the near-equatorial Apollo sites, other validation techniques must be applied. At the LSP, the sun crests only about three degrees above the horizon and when combined with the lack of a lunar atmosphere, lighting in this region is often very different than what a human would experience on Earth. Solar illumination, earthshine, human eye response, solar blooming, lunar regolith optical properties, and shadows cast by rocks and crater walls will play a significant role in an astronaut’s ability to safely conduct an Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) or perform a traverse with a lunar rover. Approaches for validation of these aspects of the rendered LSP environment are considered in this paper. In addition to natural lighting, approaches for the validation of artificial lighting models at the LSP are discussed. The JSC Lighting Lab has been studying the illumination profile of the Exploration Infomatics Subsystem (xINFO) lighting on the Exploration EVA Mobility Unit (xEMU). How these lights interact with the solar illumination and the shadows being cast on the lunar surface is of particular interest, so the validity of models representing these lights in a human-in-the-loop virtual reality environment becomes very important. This paper also touches on some of the simulation performance considerations when a Human in the Loop (HITL) is present, which drives the need for real time rendering of the environment. Natural and artificial lighting will play a crucial role to decisions being made when planning and executing missions at the Lunar South Pole (LSP) and it is vitally important to understand the LSP environment before we return.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRS2023

Approaches for Validation of Lighting Environments in Realtime Lunar South Pole Simulations

NASA’s Artemis campaign is making heavy use of simulation to help return humans to the lunar surface by the end of the decade. There are several aspects of the lunar surface and its environment which must be accurately modeled before these simulations can be relied upon to influence decisions being made under these programs. Digital Lunar Exploration Sites, a paper submitted to the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference, outlined the process used to generate the lunar surface in a digital environment. This paper will expand upon this topic and delve into the steps being taken by the NASA Exploration Systems Simulations (NExSyS) team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) to properly verify and validate these simulations, with a focus on the visual aspects of the environment. Natural lighting validation relies in part on the wealth of data generated during the Apollo program. Many images taken by Apollo astronauts on the lunar surface have been replicated in the simulated environments to gain confidence in the accuracy of terrain and lighting models. However, because the environment the Artemis astronauts will experience at the Lunar South Pole (LSP) is dissimilar from the near-equatorial Apollo sites, other validation techniques must be applied. At the LSP, the sun crests only about 1.5 degrees above the horizon and when combined with the lack of a lunar atmosphere, lighting in this region is often very different than what a human would experience on Earth. Solar illumination, earthshine, human eye response, solar blooming, lunar regolith optical properties, and shadows cast by rocks and crater walls will play a significant role in an astronaut’s ability to safely conduct an Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) or perform a traverse with a lunar rover. Approaches for validation of these aspects of the rendered LSP environment are considered in this paper. In addition to natural lighting, approaches for the validation of artificial lighting models at the LSP are discussed. The JSC Lighting Lab has been studying the illumination profile of the Exploration Informatics Subsystem (xINFO) lighting on the Exploration EVA Mobility Unit (xEMU). How these lights interact with the solar illumination and the shadows being cast on the lunar surface is of particular interest, so the validity of models representing these lights in a human-in-the-loop virtual reality environment becomes very important. This paper also touches on some of the simulation performance considerations when a Human in the Loop (HITL) is present, which drives the need for realtime rendering of the environment. Natural and artificial lighting will play a crucial role to decisions being made when planning and executing missions at the Lunar South Pole (LSP) and it is vitally important to understand the LSP environment before we return.

Lunar↗
NASA NTRS1973

Magnetic studies on Apollo 15 and 16 lunar samples

The magnetic properties of lunar samples are almost exclusively due to rather pure metallic iron. The mare basalt contains about 0.06 wt.% Fe, the soils 0.5-0.6 wt.%, and the breccias 0.3-1.0 wt.%. Most of the additional iron in the soils and breccias is believed to be the result of reduction processes operating on the lunar surface. Whereas the total metallic iron content of the soils from all landing sites is rather constant, the Fe(0)/Fe(++) ratio and the average iron grain size increase with the age of the landing site, reflecting increasing maturity. The crystalline rocks studied from Apollo 16 have highly variable, but generally, very high metallic Fe content (up to 1.7 wt.% Fe). It is suggested that these rocks are either breccias or igneous samples which have been severely thermally metamorphosed in a highly reducing environment.

Pearce, G. W.↗
NASA NTRS2013

First Results from NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE)

As of early August, 2013, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission is scheduled for launch on a Minotaur V rocket from Wallops Flight Facility during a five-day launch period that opens on Sept. 6, 2013 (early Sept. 7 UTC). LADEE will address 40 year-old mysteries of the lunar atmosphere and the question of levitated lunar dust. It will also pioneer the next generation of optical space communications. LADEE will assess the composition of the lunar atmosphere and investigate the processes that control its distribution and variability, including sources, sinks, and surface interactions. LADEE will also determine whether dust is present in the lunar exosphere, and reveal its sources and variability. These investigations are relevant to our understanding of surface boundary exospheres and dust processes occurring at many objects throughout the solar system, address questions regarding the origin and evolution of lunar volatiles, and have potential implications for future exploration activities. Following a successful launch, LADEE will enter a series of phasing orbits, which allows the spacecraft to arrive at the Moon at the proper time and phase. This approach accommodates any dispersion in the Minotaur V launch injection. LADEE's arrival at the moon in early October. The spacecraft will approach the moon from its leading edge, travel behind the Moon out of sight of the Earth, and then re-emerge and execute a three-minute Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver. This will place LADEE in an elliptical retrograde equatorial orbit with an orbital period of approximately 24 hours. A series of maneuvers is then performed to reduce the orbit to become nearly circular with a 156-mile (250- kilometer) altitude. Spacecraft checkout and science instrument commissioning will commence in early-October and will nominally span 30 days but can be extended for an additional 30 days in the event of contingencies. Following commissioning, the 100-day Science Phase is performed at an orbit with periapsis between 20-60 km. This orbit must be constantly managed due to the Moon's highly inhomogeneous gravity field. During the Science Phase, the moon will rotate more than three times underneath the LADEE orbit. LADEE employs a high heritage instrument payload: a Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS) from Goddard Space Flight Center, an Ultraviolet/Visible Spectrometer (UVS) from Ames Research Center, and a dust detection experiment (LDEX) from the University of Colorado/LASP. It will also carry the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) as a technology demonstration. The LLCD is funded by the Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD), managed by GSFC, and built by the MIT Lincoln Lab. Contingent upon LADEE's successful lunar orbit insertion and checkout, we will report the early results from the science investigations.

Moon↗
NASA NTRS2012

Spacecraft Thermal and Optical Modeling Impacts on Estimation of the GRAIL Lunar Gravity Field

We summarize work performed involving thermo-optical modeling of the two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft. We derived several reconciled spacecraft thermo-optical models having varying detail. We used the simplest in calculating SRP acceleration, and used the most detailed to calculate acceleration due to thermal re-radiation. For the latter, we used both the output of pre-launch finite-element-based thermal simulations and downlinked temperature sensor telemetry. The estimation process to recover the lunar gravity field utilizes both a nominal thermal re-radiation accleration history and an apriori error model derived from that plus an off-nominal history, which bounds parameter uncertainties as informed by sensitivity studies.

thermal modeling↗
NASA NTRS1989

Production of oxygen from lunar ilmenite

The overall objective of this project was to develop a novel carbothermal reduction process for production of oxygen from lunar ilmenite. The specific objective was to use a reaction sequence in which a wide variety of carbonaceous compounds (including carbonaceous wastes) can be used as reducing agents. During the first phase, two reactor systems were designed, constructed, and operated to study the reaction fundamental important in this process. One system is a small fluidized bed, and the other is a thermo-gravimetric reactor system. Preliminary experiments on synthetic ilmenite are conducted to study the effect of carbon type, carbon loading, temperature, and gas flow rate. Results indicate that a reaction path based on carbon gasification can be used to promote the overall kinetics. A unique temperature and concentration-programmed reaction procedure was being developed for rapid parametric study of the process.

Shadman, F.↗
NASA NTRS1991

NASA Space Engineering Research Center for Utilization of Local Planetary Resources

In the processing of propellants, volatiles, and metals subject area, the following topics are discussed: reduction of lunar regolith; reduction of carbon dioxide; and reduction of carbonaceous materials. Other areas addressed include: (1) production of structural and refractory materials; (2) resource discovery and characterization; (3) system automation and optimization; and (4) database development. The majority of these topics are discussed with respect to the development of lunar and mars bases. Some main topics of interest include: asteroid resources, lunar resources, mars resources, materials processing, construction materials, propellant production, oxygen production, and space-based oxygen production plants.

Ramohalli, Kumar↗
NASA NTRS1990

The feasibility of solar reflector production from lunar materials for solar power in space

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) investigated the feasibility of producing solar reflectors from indigenous lunar materials for solar power production on the moon. First, lunar construction materials and production processes were reviewed, and candidate materials for reflector production were identified. At the same time, lunar environmental conditions were reviewed for their effect on production of concentrators. Next, conceptual designs and fabrication methods were proposed and studied for production of dish concentrators and heliostats. Finally, fabrication testing was performed on small-scale models using earth analogs of lunar materials. Findings from this initial investigation indicate that production of concentrators from lunar materials may be an attractive approach for solar energy production on the moon. Further design and testing are required to determine the best techniques and approaches to optimize this concept. Four materials were identified as having high potential for solar reflector manufacture. These baseline materials were foamed glass, concrete with glass-fiber reinforcement, a glass-fiber/glass-melt composite, and an iron-glass sintered material.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1997

Lunar Prospector Mission Design

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected Lunar Prospector as one of the discovery missions to conduct solar system exploration science investigations. The mission is NASA's first lunar voyage to investigate key science objectives since Apollo and will be launched in September 1997. In keeping with discovery program requirements to reduce total mission cost and utilize new technology, Lunar Prospector's mission design and control will focus on the use of innovative and proven trajectory analysis programs. As part of this effort, the Ames Research Center and the Goddard Space Flight Center have become partners in the Lunar Prospector trajectory team to provide the trajectory analysis and orbit determination support. The mission design of Lunar Prospector is characterized by a direct minimum energy transfer trajectory to the moon with an injection into a circular 100 km altitude polar mapping orbit. The mission design will incorporate the optimization of the reference trajectory for a new launch vehicle. An extended mission includes a periselene altitude approaching 10 km. As part of the navigation, a new lunar potential model will be used that incorporates data from the recent Clementine mission. This paper provides understanding of the design of the Lunar Prospector mission and the optimization process of the nominal trajectory, orbit determination, launch windows, and lunar orbit targets, and discusses the feasibility of meeting the mission goals.

Folta, David↗
NASA NTRS2001

Space Weathering in the Mercurian Environment

Space weathering processes are known to be important on the Moon. These processes both create the lunar regolith and alter its optical properties. Like the Moon, Mercury has no atmosphere to protect it from the harsh space environment and therefore it is expected that it will also incur the effects of space weathering. However, there are many important differences between the environments of Mercury and the Moon. These environmental differences will almost certainly affect the weathering processes and the products of those processes. It should be possible to observe the effects of these differences in Vis (visible)/NIR (near infrared) spectra of the type expected to be returned by MESSENGER. More importantly, understanding these weathering processes and their consequences is essential for evaluating the spectral data returned from MESSENGER and other missions in order to determine the mineralogy and the Fe content of the Mercurian surface. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Noble, S. K.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Sims Analysis of Water Abundance and Hydrogen Isotope in Lunar Highland Plagioclase

The detection of indigenous water in mare basaltic glass beads has challenged the view established since the Apollo era of a "dry" Moon. Since this discovery, measurements of water in lunar apatite, olivine-hosted melt inclusions, agglutinates, and nominally anhydrous minerals have confirmed that lunar igneous materials contain water, implying that some parts of lunar mantle may have as much water as Earth's upper mantle. The interpretation of hydrogen (H) isotopes in lunar samples, however, is controversial. The large variation of H isotope ratios in lunar apatite (delta Deuterium = -202 to +1010 per mille) has been taken as evidence that water in the lunar interior comes from the lunar mantle, solar wind protons, and/or comets. The very low deuterium/H ratios in lunar agglutinates indicate that solar wind protons have contributed to their hydrogen content. Conversely, H isotopes in lunar volcanic glass beads and olivine-hosted melt inclusions being similar to those of common terrestrial igneous rocks, suggest a common origin for water in both Earth and Moon. Lunar water could be inherited from carbonaceous chondrites, consistent with the model of late accretion of chondrite-type materials to the Moon as proposed by. One complication about the sources of lunar water, is that geologic processes (e.g., late accretion and magmatic degassing) may have modified the H isotope signatures of lunar materials. Recent FTIR analyses have shown that plagioclases in lunar ferroan anorthosite contain approximately 6 ppm H2O. So far, ferroan anorthosite is the only available lithology that is believed to be a primary product of the lunar magma ocean (LMO). A possible consequence is that the LMO could have contained up to approximately 320 ppm H2O. Here we examine the possible sources of water in the LMO through measurements of water abundances and H isotopes in plagioclase of two ferroan anorthosites and one troctolite from lunar highlands.

Hui, Hejiu↗