P061-01
Concentrated Solar Driven In-Situ Resource Utilization On The Moon

Monday, 14 December 2020: 17:30
Virtual
Ashley Clendenen1, Brant Jones1, Thomas M Orlando2 and Peter Loutzenhiser3, (1)Georgia Institute of Technology Main Campus, Atlanta, GA, United States, (2)Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States, (3)Georgia Institute of Technology Main Campus, Mechanical Engineering, Atlanta, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Most ISRU methods require some sort of power to operate, and it is better to use the preexisting lunar resources to power these processes. One thing the moon has in abundance is solar power. Thus, it would be ideal to use concentrated solar power to drive ISRU on the moon, including ISRU extraction of oxygen or water from the lunar regolith.

The moon is an ideal location for utilizing solar resources for a number of reasons. There is almost no atmosphere to reduce the amount of solar radiation, so the extraterrestrial solar radiation incident on the moon is ~1365 W/m2 (compared to Earth’s ~1000 W/m2). Since the lunar declination is only ~1.5o [1], there is very little seasonal change to the light conditions. In addition, there are places on the moon that are permanently illuminated.

Concentrating the solar resources is another way to increase the efficiency and feasibility of the process. There are three main types of solar concentrating technologies: trough systems, tower systems, and dish systems. Trough systems use single axis sun tracking while tower and dish systems use two axis sun tracking [2]. Each system is capable of concentrating the solar radiation a specific amount; trough systems 30-100 suns, tower systems 500-5000 suns, and dish systems 1000-10000 suns [3].

One ISRU process that could utilize concentrated solar is the extraction of oxygen from the lunar regolith. Chemical equilibrium modeling was performed to forecast chemical compositions as a function of temperature and pressure for lunar regolith. Gibb’s Free Energy minimization was used to predict equilibrium compositions for isobaric processes [4]. The regolith compositions were taken from [5]. Equilibrium predictions for oxygen are shown in the figure. A small temperature range is present for favorable O2(g) evolution due to the extremely low pressure. Similar predictions have been made for water in shadowed craters, but there are other trapped volatiles in these craters [6], that are potentially toxic or harmful. These must be considered for ISRU scenarios that involve permanently shadowed regions.

[1] Burke (2012) In: Badescu (eds) Moon. [2] Steinfeld and Meier, (2004) Ency of Energy 5, 623-637. [3] "Concentrating Solar Power" SEIA. [4] White, et al., J CHEM PHYS, 28(5): 751-755. [5] Stoeser, et al. 2010. [6] Colaprete, et al., Science, 2010. 330(6003): 463-8.

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