Test bed for Planetary Outposts & ISRU
This technical thread is for the discussion of topics relevant to the use of the Lunar Way-station as a test bed for enabling technologies aimed at the creation of permanent Human bases and outposts on Planetary bodies.
In-situ resource- utilisation (ISRU) is the core motivation for most of these enabling technologies (but not all of them) and so this thread can also be used for topics specific to ISRU.
Some possible technologies a Lunar Test Bed could be used to demonstrate/pilot:
Tunnelling equipment,
Lunar oxygen production,
Hydrogen retrieval from regolith,
Microwave scintering etc.,
Mass driver(for lunar orbit & earth orbit insertion)
Power generation
Radiation Shielding
Most of these are ISRU capabilities.
Lunar Oxygen plant
Studies have been comissioned by NASA to develop and design concepts for oxygen production from lunar material.
The following introductory information is taken from a Conceptual Design of a Lunar Oxygen Pilot plant
(Lunar Base systems study Task 4.2) and was prepared under NASA Contract NAS9-17878 for the Advanced Programs Office Johnson Space Centre by Eagle Engineering,Inc.
(EEI Contract TO-87-57) in 1988!
Benefits of Oxygen pilot plant:
Lunar oxygen could be used for life support, spacecraft propellant oxidizer and for servicing non-regenerative fuel cell power systems as well as offsetting oxygen losses from leakage and airlock cycling.
The report outlines 13 different methods of producing lunar oxygen, the two methods that recieve most attention are hydrogen reduction of ilmenite and the extraction of solar wind hydrogen...
The report states that the thermal recovery of solar wind hydrogen liberates water which is electrolysed to give oxgygen and hydrogen.(water being a reaction product of hydrogen and the ilmenite contained in the soil).
So both oxidzer and fuel propellant can be produced for spacecraft and lunar landers using these processes.
(The report is 280 pages long, as already mentioned this outline is from the introduction)
Our Testbed may be ideal for such essential pilot schemes...
and reports such as these highlight the past and current collaboration of the private sector, academia and space agencies relevant to human planetary bases
(as mentioned in our IAC abstract).
I downloaded this and other reports from a website that I can't locate at the moment. I will put the link up as soon as I relocate it. I think it was created by 'The Space Resources Roundtable'.
Satinder
Some ideas on the habitats that might comprise a lunar way-station.
Inflatable habitats. These could be used for the earliest lunar missions. They are much lighter than the habitat modules being used on the International Space Station. The company Bigelow Aerospace is already working on this sort of habitat, and plans to launch a full-scale manned inflatable space station with the next few years. A while ago, Robert Bigelow even suggested that future missions could involve dropping a series of interconnected habitats onto the lunar surface, providing an immediate base for astronauts to work on.
Long-term habitats. These would be much larger than the first habitats, and would support much larger populations. Minerals found in the lunar regolith, such as iron, calcium, aluminum, magnesium, and titanium could be used to build such habitats. Silicon could also be used to build solar panels. These habitats would provide better protection from micrometeorites and solar radiation than inflatable habitats.
Hi Kevin,
Inflatable habitats would be another technology that could be tested within the framework of a waystation especially for short term use. As you suggest, they would be ideal for the earliest lunar missions and a reduction in launch mass will always be beneficial. It seems that the Bigelow inflatable modules that are currently being tested in orbit are doing fine...I think he purchased the rights to the patents developed by NASA under what was originally the Transhab concept.
In order for the long term habitats to be constructed from lunar materials (negating the necessity to launch such structures from Earth), ISRU must be developed to the point were this becomes practical, and this is where the waystation and any other planetary test bed will be of upmost importance, in that they will pave the way for such endeavours to become a reality, were maybe just the tools necessary to process the lunar minerals that you highlighted can be launched with just a minimum of launch mass dedicated to pre-fabricated lunar structures.
The Space Resources Roundtable has an interesting website, with a wide range of information and reports relevant to this thread. I finally located the web link which is: www.ISRUInfo.com
I will post extracts from some of the relevant papers that I have been reading from their website. I suggest that anyone from the group interested in ISRU take a look at this website and read the papers available there.
Satinder
The Space Resources Roundtable, Inc.(Website: www.ISRUInfo.com)
In 2006 'The Space Resources Roundtable' (a collective of individuals from the space exploration community, the financial sector and themining and mineral industries) made the following recommendations (in a report developed during Space resources Roundtable VIII), on which ISRU related technologies should be demonstrated during the lead-up to, and the early stages of, the return to the moon:
ISRU Demonstration priorities
In order to realize the VSE it must be possible to demonstrate ISRU capabilities sooner rather than later, engage mission architects (NASA & Industrial),engage the public, meet program needs in terms of launch mass and cost, demonstrate appropriate technology, at the appropriate scale, serve dual uses and necessitate in-situ lunar demonstration (cannot be performed on Earth).
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Assumptions made regarding architecture of VSE:
>Human missions will rely upon some ISRU process(es) by 2022+.
>Robotic landers will go to the moon on two to three year intervals, beginning in the next decade.
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ISRU capability will bring the greatest benefits when applied to the following:
Regolith excavation and transport (for radiation/micro-meteorite shielding and thermal moderation),
Water production (from regolith for life support and radiation shielding),
Oxygen production (from regolith for life support and propulsion),
Fuel production (from regolith for Earth return, Lunar surface/orbital science expeditions, etc),
Energy production, transport, storage and distribution (for outpost use),
Structural and Building material fabrication (for outpost use),
Spare part, machine, and tool production (for outpost use),
Construction and site preparation (using in situ materials and in situ energy),
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These capabilities are then divided into the following categories:
Excavation and Materials handling & materials processing and manufacturing.
Excavation and Materials handling
The report highlights the fact that the first stage in using any local material is gathering it.
It then raises the following questions:
can these tasks (hole drilling, trench digging & collecting of samples) be done repeatedly & autonomously? and for how long, before the equipment needs repair?
How difficult will it be to fix the equipment?
What production rates can be expected?
Can this provide feedstocks of the properties desired?
The report then recommends that the following material handling capabilities should be demonstrated in an increasing order of complexity:
>Robotic Precursor mission- excavate 10kg regolith
-prove concepts for lunar surface excavation and material transport.
-Validate analytical models.
-measure soil mechanics properties pertinent to later needs.
>Excavate regolith for Oxygen production.
-Demonstrate equipment performance.
-Leverage terrestrial deep mining and small-scale mining technologies.
-Test systems-level design.
>Excavate regolith for Lunar surface preparation.
-Large scale manipulation of regolith-berms, habitats, shielding, roads.
-Test multiple, teamed excavation units for flexible capabilities.
>Excavate polar regolith for Water extraction.
-Mobility methodologies into and out of shadowed craters.
-Different techniques required for regolith-ice mixes than for dry surface regolith and
for deeper, compacted regolith.
materials processing and manufacturing.
These two categories are grouped together and assumed to be incorporated once the material handling capabilities are proven. But as the ISRU concepts are proven, these categories are to be broken apart again for appropriate incorporation into mission architectures. The report then states that in order of performance, early demonstrations should achieve the following:
>Produce Life support consumables.
-Oxygen, water, nitrogen.
-Increase safety margin.
>Produce propulsion consumables.
-Oxygen, water, nitrogen.
-Different product specifications than for life support.
-Increase access to space, and safety margin.
>Generate power on-site.
>Manufacturing.
-Metals, ceramics, spare parts.
-Demonstrate at later stages of planning the return to the
moon.
>Produce surface construction materials and capabilities.
-Demonstrate at later stages of planning the return to the
moon.
The report concludes that 'living off the land' is a compelling strategy for the VSE, But has never been done anywhere apart from Earth.
Different ISRU missions are then outlined and are designed to aid mission architects (refer to full report). Time lags between missions dependent on each other's results prompt parallel missions in the early stages of the VSE and later missions can take advantage of earlier mission findings.
The final conclusion of the report is that these missions are achievable within current time and cost constraints and may already be planned, for other purposes and will generate critical data for mission planners.
The full report can be found at the Space resources roundtable website.
Satinder
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