Lunarpedia - User contributions [en]

Solar Power

2007-06-18T18:42:59Z

Geoffrey.landis: /* PV Problems */

An attractive source for power on the Moon is the Sun. Solar is particularly inviting in the polar regions where mountain tops are available that have solar views 75% to 99% of the time. The sun light is not diminished by an atmosphere and is never blocked by clouds. It is harsh and unrelenting.

From the surface of the Moon, the Sun appears to move slowly across the sky making a full cycle every 29 days. On rare occasions it is eclipsed by the Earth for a few minutes.

At the poles, the Sun simply circles the sky very near the horizon. At its lowest point it may be blocked by mountain tops. Other times it may be blocked by local instillations such as other power collectors.

Near the lunar equator, the Sun is visible only one half the time. The 14 day lunar nights are a major problem for power generation and are a major factor in setting a polar location for the first lunar settlement.

There are basically two types of solar power, [[Solar Dynamic]] (SD) and [[Photovoltaic]] (PV).

SD uses a heat cycle to drive a piston or a turbine which connects to a generator or dynamo. Two popular cycles for Solar Dynamic are [[Brayton Cycle]] or [[Stirling Cycle]]. Solar Dynamic systems employ a large reflector to focus sunlight to a high concentration to achieve a high temperature for the heat cycle to operate at highest possible efficiency.

PV uses semiconductors (e.g. Silicon or Gallium Arsenide) to directly convert sunlight photons into electric potential. Commonly know as “Solar cells”

==Comparison of PV versus SD==

===PV Problems===

The main problem with solar power is that Photovoltaic conversion efficiency is only about 15-20% efficient (for lower-cost single juntion cell technologies), and 25-30% efficient (for higher-priced multijunction PV cells). While on a power per unit mass (''specific power'') basis, photovoltaic cells are one of the lowest-mass power supplies avalable, PV cells are nevertheless rather heavy to ship from Earth and to soft land on Luna is very expensive.

===SD Problems===

SD has a much more severe pointing requirement than PV because it needs to maintain an accurate optical focus.

If a PV array drifts off a few degrees, the power level drops a few percent.

If a SD array drifts off a few degrees, the power level drops off to zero.

==Space Based Solar power==

Until [[ISRU]] manufacturing is online, [[Solar Power Satellites]] (SPS) represent a more economic means of supplying large scale basebar power on the Moon in the early days.

Compared to PV or SD systems, an SPS rectenna by itself is lightweight and has a conversion efficiency of over 90%.

Let us assume a PV array is 10 times heavier per watt than a rectenna.

That means we can get 5*10 = 50 times as much power per kilogram for a rectenna than for a PV array. That means a rectenna will be at least 50 times cheaper per watt of useful power than PV array. "At least" because the manufacturing cost of a rectenna will be much cheaper than for PV array.

Soft landing hardware on to the Moon is very expensive, so weight is at a premium.

Hence space based solar power is attractive, where the PV (or SD) array remains in orbit, and a recetenna or receiver is soft landed on to the surface of the Moon.

Two different orbital locations have been studied

===Option 1) Located at [[GFDL:Lagrangian point|Lagrange Libration points]]===

The distance from L1 to Luna is about the same as the distance from Earth to a geostationary satellite.

[[image:Lagrange_A.jpg|thumb|200 px|right|Lagrangian points in a two body system]]
[[image:Lagrange_B.jpg|thumb|200 px|right|Lagrangian points and force contour]]

So one could put an SPS at lunar-L1 and beam microwaves from there to supply one or more rectennas on the Moon as a very efficient way to provide energy to a power hungry moon base.

The sun angle across PV arrays on the lunar surface constantly changes, and is usually less than the 1,360 w/m^2. To maintain constant max power the PV array must have
expensive and heavy steering equipment. Whereas a rectenna does not need to be steered, and always gets maximum power.

The ideal site for the lunar rectenna would be in [[Sinus Medii]] at the Lunar 0-Longitude point on the Lunar Equator, in the middle of the side which faces the Earth.

1) Because it is directly below the L-1 point,
2) it is the closest point on the lunar surface to the L-1 point,
3) Because at that point the lunar surface is at right angles to
the incoming microwave beam.

All these factors permit the smallest rectenna at that location.

Without making any modifications at all to that very SPS, it could easily be maneuvered from L1 to GEO to feed a terrestrial ground based rectenna. The antenna design for L-1 to Luna will work equally well from GEO to Earth

===Option 2) Molniya Satellites===

This option would be to have a large constellation of several [[Molniya]] type low orbiting power satellites in elliptical polar orbits.

At the 2007 Rutgers Symposium, Brandhorst et al<ref>[http://www.lunarbase.rutgers.edu/presentations/Brandhorst.ppt A Solar Electric Propulsion Mission with Lunar Power Beaming.]Henry W. Brandhorst, Jr., Julie A. Rodiek and Michael S. Crumpler ...</ref><ref>[http://lunarbase.rutgers.edu/files/Symposium_Speaker_List.doc A Solar Electric Propulsion Mission with Lunar Power Beaming. 36, 23, ]Rodiek et al...</ref> proposed beaming power to the lunar surface using lasers from lunar satellites in Molniya orbits.

==[[Lasers]] versus [[Microwaves]]==

The ideal frequency to use for lunar power beaming has not been definitively established. Microwave frequencies of 2Ghz and 5GHz have been proposed. But lasers are an alternative. In the lunar environment it is a vacuum, so absorption by atmospheric water vapor and other gases are not a factor, allowing greater choice of frequencies than for beaming power down to Earth.

Pros and cons:

===Rectenna versus PV array===

Microwave rectenna converts microwave to DC at about 90% efficiency, compared to about 50% efficiency for PV conversion of laser to DC.

===Klystron versus Laser===

Klystron converts Dc to microwave at about 90% efficiency, compared to about 50% efficiency for Laser DC to light.

===Thermal Problems===

The laser method suffers from major thermal problems versus microwave. Rejecting the large amount of waste heat will require large heavy thermal radiators which will add significantly to the launch costs.

===Transmitter Antenna Problems===

Microwave antenna, depending on frequency, will need very large aperture transmitter antenna, and even larger diameter rectenna array. A laser would be much smaller and more compact, and so would the receiving PV array

===Overall Comparison===

At this time no definitive work has been published to show whether the larger radiators of the laser system would outweigh the larger antennas of the microwave system.

==Lunar Solar power==
Once lunar development is under way, one potential major lunar export could be lunar-produced energy. With in-situ manufactured solar panels on the lunar surface, more power could easily be produced than is needed for lunar activities; this power could be beamed via microwave or laser systems to where it's needed in near-Earth space, or to Earth itself. Such a system has been described in detail by [[David Criswell]] as the solution to Earth's future energy problems.

Advantages of the Lunar Solar Power System:
* No need to launch massive solar panels into orbit from Earth or Moon once the initial lunar manufacturing is established; only minimal launch requirements to build the system out.
* Provides stable base line for synchronizing and precisely targeting power beams
* All the usual advantages of solar power satellites, over normal Earth sources of energy

Disadvantages:
* the lunar surface rotates under the Sun, just as Earth does, so the LSP solar panels would only be in sunlight for half the lunar month.
* significant technology development is needed on automating production of solar panels from lunar soil, and related space manufacturing issues.

==References==

<references/>

[[Category:Power Supply]]

{{Cleanup}}

NASA TM-2004-212743

2007-03-14T14:43:39Z

Geoffrey.landis: link to Solar Power Satellites article

[[NASA TM-2004-212743]] - "Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" and "Peak Power Markets for Satellite Solar Power" from the Houston IAF Congress ([[International Astronautical Federation]]). Author: [[Dr. Geoffrey A. Landis]]

[http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/GLTRS/browse.pl?2004/TM-2004-212743.html http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/GLTRS/browse.pl?2004/TM-2004-212743.html ]

This report analyses a new approach to the design of [[Solar Power Satellites]] ("SPS"), intended to make the initial investments lower, allow the power to be sold at higher price, and increase the synergy with terrestrial solar energy production.

Dr. [[Geoffrey A. Landis]] analyzes the economics, noting that SPS power can be sold into
different markets at different times of the day as the demand curve
changes, by selective beaming.

My comment: Terrestrial PV are limited to daylight with relatively
clear skies, unless expnsive storage systems are used, or very long
distance grid transmission is employed (also expensive).

Some quotes from the Landis paper:

Synergy With Terrestrial Solar

Space and Ground Solar Power
Analyses of space solar power often assume that ground solar power is a competing technology, and show that space solar power is a preferable technology on a rate of return basis. In fact, however, space solar power and ground solar power are complementary
technologies, not competing technologies. These considerations were initially discussed in 1990 [4]. Low-cost ground solar power is a necessary precursor to space solar power: Space solar power requires low cost, high production and high efficiency solar arrays, and these
technologies will make ground solar attractive for many markets. The ground solar power market, in turn, will serve develop technology and the high-volume production readiness for space solar power.

Since ground solar is a necessary precursor to space solar power, ananalysis of space solar power should consider how it interfaces with the ground-based solar infrastructure that will be developing on a faster scale than the space infrastructure. Some possible ways that
this interface could be optimized include:

1. Integrate solar and microwave receivers on ground. This will allow the space solar power to use the pre-existing land that has already been amortized by ground solar power receivers, and tie in to power conditioning and distribution networks that are already in place.

2. Use solar power satellites to beam to receivers when ground solar is unavailable. By "filling in" power when ground solar is unavailable, space solar power will serve as the complement to solar.

{{Cleanup}}

==See Also==

[[Solar Power]]
[[Solar Power Satellites]]

[[Category:Hardware Plans]]
[[Category:Public Domain Sources]]
[[Category:NASA Publications]]

NASA TM-2004-212743

2007-03-14T14:40:35Z

Geoffrey.landis: link updated

[[NASA TM-2004-212743]] - "Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" and "Peak Power Markets for Satellite Solar Power" from the Houston IAF Congress ([[International Astronautical Federation]]). Author: [[Dr. Geoffrey A. Landis]]

[http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/GLTRS/browse.pl?2004/TM-2004-212743.html http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/GLTRS/browse.pl?2004/TM-2004-212743.html ]

Dr. [[Geoffrey A. Landis]] analyzes the economics, noting that SPS power can be sold into
different markets at different times of the day as the demand curve
changes, by selective beaming.

My comment: Terrestrial PV are limited to daylight with relatively
clear skies, unless expnsive storage systems are used, or very long
distance grid transmission is employed (also expensive).

Some quotes from the Landis paper:

Synergy With Terrestrial Solar

Space and Ground Solar Power
Analyses of space solar power often assume that ground solar power is a competing technology, and show that space solar power is a preferable technology on a rate of return basis. In fact, however, space solar power and ground solar power are complementary
technologies, not competing technologies. These considerations were initially discussed in 1990 [4]. Low-cost ground solar power is a necessary precursor to space solar power: Space solar power requires low cost, high production and high efficiency solar arrays, and these
technologies will make ground solar attractive for many markets. The ground solar power market, in turn, will serve develop technology and the high-volume production readiness for space solar power.

Since ground solar is a necessary precursor to space solar power, ananalysis of space solar power should consider how it interfaces with the ground-based solar infrastructure that will be developing on a faster scale than the space infrastructure. Some possible ways that
this interface could be optimized include:

1. Integrate solar and microwave receivers on ground. This will allow the space solar power to use the pre-existing land that has already been amortized by ground solar power receivers, and tie in to power conditioning and distribution networks that are already in place.

2. Use solar power satellites to beam to receivers when ground solar is unavailable. By "filling in" power when ground solar is unavailable, space solar power will serve as the complement to solar.

{{Cleanup}}

==See Also==

[[Solar Power]]
[[Solar Power Satellites]]

[[Category:Hardware Plans]]
[[Category:Public Domain Sources]]
[[Category:NASA Publications]]

Solar Power Satellites

2007-03-14T14:40:03Z

Geoffrey.landis: Link updated

The concept of Solar Power Satellites (SPS) was invented and first described, in November 1968 by Dr.[[Peter Glaser]] of [[Arthur D. Little Corporation]]

Ref: Glaser, Peter E.. "Power from the Sun: Its Future". Science Magazine, 22 November 1968 Vol 162, Issue 3856, Pages 857-861.

SPS would be solar arrays in Geosynchronous orbit around Earth, beaming power to the ground via microwaves.

The receiving antenna (rectenna) is quite large, several square miles. The conversion efficiency of a rectenna is about 95%, compared to 20% or less for photovotaic cells. So SPS rectennas would require a lot less land area than conventional solar cells. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Power#Energy_from_the_Sun wikipedia] a solar panel in the contiguous United States on average delivers 19 to 56 W/m². By comparison an SPS rectenna would deliver continuously about 1,000 W/m², hence size of rectenna required per watt would be about 1.9% to 5.6% that of a terrestrial solar panel.

Some have proposed beaming down power via lasers instead of microwaves.

==Using Lunar Resources==

The late Dr.[[Gerard K. O'Neill]] determined that SPS could most cheaply be built from lunar materials. On 30 April 1979 the Final Report [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19830077470_1983077470.pdf "LUNAR RESOURCES UTILIZATION FOR SPACE CONSTRUCTION"] by General Dynamics Convair Division under NASA contract NAS9-15560 concluded that use of lunar resources would be cheaper than terrestrial materials for a system comprising as few as thirty Solar Power Satellites of 10GW capacity each.

==Radio Frequency Issues==

The inverse square law does not apply to a focussed beam.

The equation of beam spreading is a function of the transmitting antenna aperture versus the frequency.

The bigger the aperture, the tighter the beam.

Beam spreading does not cause significant power loss. The size of the antenna is set to precisely match the dimensions of the beam as it intersects the Earth's surface.

A little bit of energy is lost due to sidelobes which are caused by diffraction. It is typically not worth it to make the receiving antenna large enough to catch all the sidelobes.

As for problems of radio interference: that has little to do with the size of the rectenna, but is certainly an issue which needs to be addressed in the system design. The problem of radio interference is solvable.

SPSes normally would be about 2.4 GHz. This would not affect Ku band at all. There would have to be some review of the effect of harmonics. But the SPS sends a narrow beam, and the Ku band downlink receiving station would have to be within a few kilometres of the rectenna to even notice the harmonics within the sidelobes.

Interference between comm-sats of the same frequencies is a much bigger problem than interference between them and the SPS.

The biggest problem is that the best frequencies for SPS have now been allocated to cell phone services.

==Maintenance==

As for maintenance: very little maintenance is required for a rectenna system, it is essentially passive with no moving parts.

==Next steps==

Lunar L-1 is the best place to put an initial solar power satellite demonstrator. We can place the rectenna on the Moon and the solar PV arrays at L-1. The distance from L-1 to the Moon (50,000 km) is similar to the distance from GEO to Earth (40,000 km), so it will validate the engineering design well, and prove that useful power can be beamed over that distance.
This is also the cheapest way to deliver large scale power to the lunar surface, as rectennas are light weight and PV cells area heavy. Soft landing hardware on the Moon from Earth is very expensive.

==Economics==

Solar power Satellites (SPS) will not compete head to head on price alone in the foreseeable future. This is because deceptively cheap (subsidized) energy continues to be readily available using nuclear power and fossil fuels, and could continue for a couple of centuries or more.

On the other hand....

If we assume (however hypothetically) that the world decides that "Fossil Fuels Are Bad", and mandates Zero emission of greenhouse gases...then what forms of power will be used ? Does this mean a widespread increase in the use of nuclear power ? Is this a good thing or a bad thing ?

Is SPS better than nuclear power ?

The collateral damage caused by fossil fuels and nuclear fission far outweighs their deceptively low price. The real price for these fuels is very high when you consider these factors:

==Alternatives to Solar power Satellites==

===Fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas):===

- military cost of securing sources of supply and supply channels, with associated geopolitical problems and trouble with the local insurgents - [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070203/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_budget;_ylt=AtygXJsZAwL.OXFnqMT2A1Zp24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA-- Bush budget hikes war funding] 
- cost of the war on terror (unfriendly regimes and terrorists funded by oil revenues) 
- huge balance of trade deficits from importing fossil fuels [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6190545.stm US deficit heading towards record ] 
- air pollution - reduced life expectancy / healthcare costs 
- global warming exacerbated by greenhouse gases 
- water pollution (e.g. Mercury from coal) - reduced life expectancy / healthcare costs 

====Global Warming====

On 2nd February 2007, [http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/index.html Working Group I] of the [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]] (IPCC) published IPCC Working Group I Fourth Assessment Report Summary for Policymakers (SPM) [http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/docs/WG1AR4_SPM_PlenaryApproved.pdf http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/docs/WG1AR4_SPM_PlenaryApproved.pdf].

Later in 2007 the IPCC will publish the complete version of the most strongly worded report so far "Fourth Assessment Report (AR4)", confirming that human emissions of greenhouse gases is causing the temperature of the Earth to rise, which is resulting in increasing changes to the planet's climate. The consequences of this include disruption to agriculture and global food supply, extinction of species, rising sea levels, loss of human habitat, increased erosion and property damage due to more violent storms.

SPS is a potential solution to global warming.

SPS will reduce heat pollution, not increase it.

Assuming the world is supplied by 200 SPS at 5 GW each. Each SPS loses 1 % into the atmosphere, a total of 10 GW of atmospheric heating caused by all the world's SPSes.

10 / 1.2 x 10E14 = 8 x 10e8 GW

So the entire losses of all the world's SPSes would be 8 parts in a hundred million.

The present power stations of the world are injecting about thirty times as much into the atmosphere right now even as we type. A total of 2000 GW.

And even that is a drop in the bucket compared to global warming. According to the NASA GSFC website (in 2002), the imbalance due to greenhouses gases is 2.45 W/m2, which the Earth is absorbing and not radiating to space. Of this, 1.56 W/m2 is due to CO2, 0.47 to methane and 0.14 to N2O.

This equates to an energy absorption rate of 12 million GW.

SPS will reduce the problem of global warming, because it will replace the 12 million GW due to greenhouse gases, and the 2000 GW due to nuclear and fossil fuels, and replace it with a more tolerable 10 GW (worst case) of direct atmospheric absorption and 100 GW of waste heat at ground level.

====Mercury contamination from burning coal====

It is now official, seafood is becoming unsafe because of Mercury
contamination from burning coal.

http://www.epa.gov/mercury/

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01038.html

http://www.epa.gov/ost/fishadvice/advice.html

Oil and Natural gas will be running out in a few decades and the
world will then rely essentially on coal for its primary source of
energy.

Seafood contamination will get worse.

===Nuclear fission===

- military cost of securing supply chains against theft 
- military cost of securing waste sites against theft 
- cleanup cost of decommissioning power stations 
- cost of meltdown - reduced life expectancy / healthcare costs 
- cost of waste leakage - reduced life expectancy / healthcare costs 
- social cost of draconian global security regimes (big brother) 

===Terrestrial Solar power===

The sun angle across PV arrays constantly changes, and is usually less than the 1,360 w/m^2 maximum. To maintian constant max power the PV array must have expensive and heavy steering equipment. Whereas a SPS rectenna does not need to be steered, and always gets maximum power.

Lack of 24 hour coverage (ignoring weather) means that terrestrial solar power systems need some means of supplying consumers during the night time. Night time load is usually less than daytime load, but it is not zero, far from it. In winter time especially, the working day extends substantially into dark time.

Many industries and transportation systems need to operate on a 24 by 7 basis. (If you do not know what that means then your have not worked in private industry recently).

This means that one of two systems are needed, either

a) a global power grid to pass power from the daylit side to the night side, or

b) power storage systems.

Both solutions exceed the cost of the solar cells themselves and are conveniently ignored by most proponents of terrestrial solar power.

Solution a) also suffers from political problems, similar to the international wrangling going on about the Tengiz oil field pipeline.

Pipelines and power lines are political hot potatoes, nobody wants a hostile neighbor to have the ability to cut off their power or their oil.

Another issue: Ironically, terrestrial solar power has a more severe impact on terrestrial ecosystems and land usage than SPS rectennas. Permanent shadowing of the soil from a solar panel kills the local flora and results in a dustbowl. But agriculture can continue unabated beneath an SPS rectenna and soil erosion is thus mitigated. SPS rectennas can be sited on prime agricultural land, terrestrial solar panels cannot.

===Ethanol/Biodeisel===

After oil is gone, Ethanol will compete with Hydrogen as fuel for motor vehicles and aircraft.

However, it will not compete (on price) with coal or nuclear for grid electrical power. But neither will SPS.

The benefit of SPS is that it has about the lowest collateral damage cost, when compared with the enviro damage of coal and nuclear, count the cost of nuclear station decommissioning.

Does Ethanol have a lower collateral cost than, say, coal ? Probably. But does the world have enough agricultural capacity (or waste straw) to create the necessary quantity of ethanol ? If not, what about the quantities of fertilizers required and their environmental impact (production and runoff) ? And what about the waste products of
ethanol production ?

Interestingly, ethanol and SPS can coexist rather nicely. We can grow fields of cereal crops beneath the SPS rectennas, at least where the soil and climate allow it.

===Other Renewables (wind, tidal, hydro, geothermal)===

Other Renewables (e.g wind, tidal, hydro, geothermal) only have the capacity to supply a tiny fraction of the global demand for energy. The limitation is geography, there simply are very few sites in the world where generating systems of these types can be built.

Ocean based windpower is one possibility, but that is dominated by the high cost of long distance power transmission, in which case SPS would be highly competititve.

===Nuclear Fusion===

For the past few decades humanity has been "ten years " away from achieving nuclear fusion breakthrough. At this time there is no credible timeline for when nuclear fusion power plants will come on line. So until then, nuclear fusion is not a credible competitor to solar power satellites.

==Conclusion==

If you include the cost of maintaining a military presence in the middle east, and the cost of global warming, then the cost of oil would probably quadruple.

Nuclear power might appear cheaper than SSPS at first sight, until you factor in the cost of disposing of nuclear waste and decommissioning the reactors, then it suddenly becomes horrendously expensive and SSPS becomes attractive. But so far, nuclear decommissioning costs have been ignored, so that is a problem that future generations will have to figure out how to pay for.

If society ever reaches the conclusion that fossil fuels and nuclear fuels are undesirable for the above reasons, then there is no remaining alternative to SPS for clean inexhaustible power on a global
scale.

When compared to space projects to date, SPS is very grand and ambitious, and much bigger than anything ever attempted in space before.

But when compared to the activities of the energy industry, it is in the same ball park.

If we start thinking of SPS as an ENERGY project, instead of a SPACE
project, then it starts to become a lot more feasible.

SPS is really no more expensive than the energy projects which are
under way today.

Energy is big business, it involves big money. Much bigger than the
space program. NASA is a tiny insect when compared to the oil
empires of today.

And SPS has many advantages over oil.

But as long as society is willing to continue subsidizing fossil fuels and nuclear systems, then SPS is not an option.

===U.S. Budgetary Footnote===

Notice how tiny the US Dept of Energy research budget is.

Out of a total 2003 budget of about $23 billion, less than half was for
energy research. This is less than the NASA budget.

Yet in the same year, the US spent over $100 billion on military
activities to defend sources of oil.

==See Also==

[[Solar Power]]

[[NASA TM-2004-212743]] - "Reinventing the Solar Power Satellite" and "Peak Power Markets for Satellite Solar Power" from the Houston IAF Congress ([[International Astronautical Federation]]).

Author: [[Geoffrey A. Landis]]

Basic Principles of Beamed Microwave Power [http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel1/22/3793/00141357.pdf?arnumber=141357
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel1/22/3793/00141357.pdf?arnumber=141357 ]

[[Center for Space Power]] · A NASA Resarch Partnership Center [http://engineer.tamu.edu/tees/csp/ http://engineer.tamu.edu/tees/csp/]

[[Category:Hardware]]
[[Category:Hardware Plans]]
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Spacecraft]]
[[Category:Life Support (Power Supply)]]

Talk:Fluorine Reaction

2007-03-14T14:23:13Z

Geoffrey.landis: Materials

How do you propose to mitigate flourine induced stress crack corrosion in your piping? Teflon can be used in some piping but has temperature limitations. Is there an inert refractory material that could be used as a crucible for the salt melt or a lining in the plasma reduction stage? -- [[User:Jarogers2001|Jarogers2001]] 21:15, 13 March 2007 (PDT)

== Materials ==

Nickel and Monel crucibles, using copper gaskets, are compatible with the fluorine gas. Teflon is appropriate for gaskets and tubing at lower temperatures. At higher temperatures, platinum crucibles would be needed, but the eutectic electrolysis should have a temperature low enough to that platinum isn't required. See J. Grannec and L. Lozano, "2: Preparative Methods", in the book Inorganic Solid Fluorides, P. Hagenmuller (ed.), Academic Press, NY, 1985, pp. 17-76.
[[User:Geoffrey.landis|Geoffrey.landis]] 07:23, 14 March 2007 (PDT)

Helium

2007-02-06T22:46:08Z

Geoffrey.landis: corrected link

Helium is the second element in the periodic table. It is a noble gas.

Helium consists of two isotopes. The most common isotope, Helium-4, has a nucleus of two protons and two neutrons, and two electrons. The less common isotope [[Helium3 | Helium-3]] has two protons and one neutron.

Helium is a component of the [[solar wind]], and hence is found (in parts per million level]] in [Lunar regolith]].

{{stub}}

[[Category:Elements]]

Solar wind

2007-02-06T22:45:10Z

Geoffrey.landis: corrected link

The '''solar wind''' is a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun. The solar wind is primarily protons ([[hydrogen]] ions), but also has some components of higher mass, including deuterium and [[helium]], as well as electrons. The solar wind has a density of a few particles per cubic centimeter, and moves at a speed of a bit over a million km/hr. Both the density and the speed of the solar wind change with the activity of the sun.

The solar wind is deflected by magnetic fields, and hence does not directly impact the Earth's surface or atmosphere. Lacking a magnetic field, the moon is directly exposed to the solar wind, and hence solar wind elements can be found implanted into [[Lunar regolith]]. Hydrogen implanted into the [[Lunar Soil]] might be a resource for lunar [[In Situ Resource Utilization]] (see [[Volatile Scavenging]], and [[Helium 3]] from the solar wind has been proposed as possible fusion fuel.

One proposed method of space propulsion is to ''sail'' on the solar wind using a "magnetic sail" ("Magsail") or a "Mini-magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion" ("M2P2") sail.

{{stub}}

Solar wind

2007-02-06T22:44:18Z

Geoffrey.landis: updated links

The '''solar wind''' is a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun. The solar wind is primarily protons ([[hydrogen]] ions), but also has some components of higher mass, including deuterium and [[helium]], as well as electrons. The solar wind has a density of a few particles per cubic centimeter, and moves at a speed of a bit over a million km/hr. Both the density and the speed of the solar wind change with the activity of the sun.

The solar wind is deflected by magnetic fields, and hence does not directly impact the Earth's surface or atmosphere. Lacking a magnetic field, the moon is directly exposed to the solar wind, and hence solar wind elements can be found implanted into [[Lunar regolith]]. Hydrogen implanted into the [[Lunar soil]] might be a resource for lunar [[In Situ Resource Utilization]] (see [[Volatile Scavenging]], and [[Helium 3]] from the solar wind has been proposed as possible fusion fuel.

One proposed method of space propulsion is to ''sail'' on the solar wind using a "magnetic sail" ("Magsail") or a "Mini-magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion" ("M2P2") sail.

{{stub}}

Solar wind

2007-02-06T22:40:30Z

Geoffrey.landis: added links, and references to sailing

The '''solar wind''' is a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun. The solar wind is primarily protons ([[hydrogen]] ions), but also has some components of higher mass, including deuterium and [[helium]], as well as electrons. The solar wind has a density of a few particles per cubic centimeter, and moves at a speed of a bit over a million km/hr. Both the density and the speed of the solar wind change with the activity of the sun.

The solar wind is deflected by magnetic fields, and hence does not directly impact the Earth's surface or atmosphere. Lacking a magnetic field, the moon is directly exposed to the solar wind, and hence solar wind elements can be found implanted into lunar [[regolith]]. Hydrogen implanted into the soil might be a resource for lunar [[In Situ Resource Utilization]] (see [[Volatile Scavenging]], and [[Helium 3]] from the solar wind has been proposed as possible fusion fuel.

One proposed method of space propulsion is to ''sail'' on the solar wind using a "magnetic sail" ("Magsail") or a "Mini-magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion" ("M2P2") sail.

{{stub}}

Helium

2007-02-06T22:38:08Z

Geoffrey.landis:

Helium is the second element in the periodic table. It is a noble gas.

Helium consists of two isotopes. The most common isotope, Helium-4, has a nucleus of two protons and two neutrons, and two electrons. The less common isotope [[Helium3 | Helium-3]] has two protons and one neutron.

Helium is a component of the [[solar wind]], and hence is found (in parts per million level]] in lunar [[regolith]].

{{stub}}

[[Category:Elements]]

Helium

2007-02-06T22:37:45Z

Geoffrey.landis: added link

''Helium 3'' is a rare isotope of the element [[Helium]], consisting of a nucleus with two protons and one neutron. The approved abbreviation (for physics use) for Helium-3 is 3He, however, the abbreviation He3 is also seen.

Since most of the Earth's helium is produced by alpha-decay of Uranium isotopes, resulting in 4He (the most common isotope of Helium), 3He is rare on Earth. It is comparatively more abundant in non-terrestrial sources, although even in non-terrestrial sources, only a small fraction of helium atoms are Helium 3.

The Moon is a source of 3He, which is implanted into the lunar [[regolith]] by the [[solar wind]]. Helium is present in the soil in quantities of ten to a hundred (weight) parts per million, and 0.003 to 1 percent of this amount (depending on soil) is 3He.

==Helium 3 as a Fusion Reaction Fuel==

It has been proposed that 3He might be a possible fuel for a [[Nuclear Fusion]] reactor to produce energy using the nuclear reaction:

2D + 3He --> 4He + 1H

This reaction has the advantage over the more-commonly proposed D-T fusion reaction that the reaction produces only charged particles (an alpha particle and a proton), with no production of neutrons. However, the corresponding difficulty is that the D-3He reaction has an ignition barrier that is twice as high as the barrier to igniting D-T fusion, because of the fact that the Helium nucleus has twice the charge of a Tritium nucleus.

So far, D-3He fusion has not yet demonstrated net energy production ("break even").

==Value of Lunar Helium 3 in Today's Market==

Since He3 has a high market value today, it might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market, although since He3 has no current uses other than laboratory experiments, it is not clear how large the market is.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value per unit weight of [[Gold]] and over eight times the value of [[Rhodium]].

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US [[Tritium]] and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US [[Tritium]] production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the [[regolith]] to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source (either [[Nuclear Fission]] or [[RTG]], or large solar panels (see [[Solar Power]]).

[[Basalt]] has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (in the Maria regions) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A [[Solar Power]] based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV 10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a [[Nuclear Fission]] power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

==== Baked Regolith ====
:{|
|-
|A commonly discussed method is cooking the [[Regolith]] to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.

Here is a reference with some details (1989, H. H. Schmitt et al):

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/pdf/fdm817.pdf

They describe three steps:
1) heat to a few hundred deg C to drive off the volatiles
2) fractional distillation to decant off the heavy volatiles
3) separate He3 from the He4 using standard superleak process

Two challenges are devising a method to process large quantities of regolith as the He3 is at a low concentration, and providing a high power thermally efficient heat source on the Moon.

This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) might be 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second = 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year
|-
|}

== Applications ==

*Medical Lung Imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Details on this experimental application of He3: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

==Links==

*[[Resource Values | Value of commodities (including He3)]]

== External Links ==
*[http://www.tunl.duke.edu/nucldata/HTML/A=3/03He_1987.shtml Nuclear data]

{{Cleanup}}
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Elements]]
[[Category:Life Support (Power Supply)]]

List of Discontinued and Cancelled Boosters

2007-02-06T22:28:12Z

Geoffrey.landis: som mis-formatting and duplication corrected

==Cancelled after achieving orbit==
(when an entire family was cancelled only the final version is listed - date of last orbital flight)

===European Union===

*[[Ariane-4]] - February 15, 2003

====United Kingdom====

*[[Black Arrow]] - October 28, 1971

====France====

*[[Diamant-BP4]] - September 27, 1975

===Russia/USSR===

*[[Energia]]/[[Buran]] - November 15, 1988

===USA===

*[[Athena-2]] - September 24, 1999
*[[Jupiter-C]] - May 24, 1961
*[[Saturn-1b]] - July 15, 1975
*[[Saturn-V]] - May 14, 1973 (see [[Apollo]])
*[[Scout-G]] - May 9, 1994
*[[Titan-IV]] - October 19, 2005
*[[Vanguard]] - September 18, 1959

===Japan===

*[[Lambda-4]] - February 11, 1970

==Cancelled after unsuccessful orbital attempt(s)==

===USA===

*[[Conestoga]]

===Europe/ELDO===

*[[Europa-II]]

===Russia/USSR ===
*[[N-1]]

==Cancelled after successful Suborbital launches, with orbital launches planned==

===Germany===

*[[Otrag]]

==Unsuccessful Suborbital launch attempt(s) (orbital launches planned)==

===USA===

*[[Dolphin]]
*[[SET-1 sounding rocket]] (see also [[American Rocket Company]] )
*[[Percheron]]
*[[X-33]]

==No launches attempted==

===Russia===

[[Burlak]] 
[[Maks]] 

===USA===

[[Beal Aerospace BA-2]] 
[[Black Colt]] 
[[Black Horse]] 
[[Excalibur]] 
[[Industrial Launch Vehicle]] (see also [[American Rocket Company]]) 
[[Liberty]] 
[[Nova]] 
[[Phoenix]] 
[[Roton]] 
[[Sea Dragon]] 
[[Venturestar]] 
[[X-30]] 
[[X-34]] 

===European Union===

[[Hotol]] 
[[Mustard]] 
[[Rombus]] 
[[Saenger]] 

{{Cleanup}}

[[Category:Components]]
[[Category:Transportation]]
[[Category:History]]

List of Discontinued and Cancelled Boosters

2007-02-06T22:17:17Z

Geoffrey.landis: /* USA */

==Cancelled after achieving orbit==
(when an entire family was cancelled only the final version is listed - date of last orbital flight)

===European Union===

[[Ariane-4]] - February 15, 2003 

====United Kingdom====

[[Black Arrow]] - October 28, 1971 

====France====

[[Diamant-BP4]] - September 27, 1975 

===USA===

*[[Athena-2]] - September 24, 1999 
*Conestoga
*Saturn-1b
*[[Saturn-V]]/[[Apollo]]
*Scout
*Titan-II
*Titan-III
*Titan-IV
*Vanguard

===Russia/USSR===

[[Energia]] - November 15, 1988 

{| width=75%
! width=34% | Booster
! width=33% | Operational Status
! width=33% | Vendor
|-

| [[Energia]]/[[Buran]] || two launches, one success || NPO Energia (no longer manufactured) ||

|}

===USA===

[[Jupiter-C]] - May 24, 1961 
[[Saturn-1b]] - July 15, 1975 
[[Saturn-V]] - May 14, 1973 
[[Scout-G]] - May 9, 1994 
[[Titan-4]] - October 19, 2005 
[[Vanguard]] - September 18, 1959 

===Japan===

[[Lambda-4]] - February 11, 1970 

==Cancelled after unsuccessful orbital attempt(s)==

===USA===

[[Conestoga]] 

===Europe/ELDO===

[[Europa-II]] 

===Russia/USSR ===
[[N-1]] 

==Successful Suborbital launches (orbital launches planned)==

===Germany===

[[Otrag]] 

==Un-successful Suborbital launch attempt(s) (orbital launches planned)==

===USA===

[[Dolphin]] 
[[SET-1 sounding rocket]] (see also [[American Rocket Company]] ) 
[[Percheron]] 
[[X-33]] 

==No launches attempted==

===Russia===

[[Burlak]] 
[[Maks]] 

===USA===

[[Beal Aerospace BA-2]] 
[[Black Colt]] 
[[Black Horse]] 
[[Excalibur]] 
[[Industrial Launch Vehicle]] (see also [[American Rocket Company]]) 
[[Liberty]] 
[[Nova]] 
[[Phoenix]] 
[[Roton]] 
[[Sea Dragon]] 
[[Venturestar]] 
[[X-30]] 
[[X-34]] 

===European Union===

[[Hotol]] 
[[Mustard]] 
[[Rombus]] 
[[Saenger]] 

{{Cleanup}}

[[Category:Components]]
[[Category:Transportation]]
[[Category:History]]

Tethers Unlimited

2007-02-06T22:10:24Z

Geoffrey.landis: added link

'''Tethers Unlimited''' (or "TU") is a company founded by the late Dr. Robert L. Forward and Robert Hoyt to commercialize applications of [[tether]]s for space propulsion and other applications

{{Stub}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.tethers.com Tethers Unlimited website]
*[http://www.tethers.com/papers/CislunarAIAAPaper.pdf Cislunar tether propulsion paper] (in PDF format)

[[Category:Vendors]]

Tethers Unlimited

2007-02-06T22:00:16Z

Geoffrey.landis:

'''Tethers Unlimited''' (or "TU") is a company founded by the late Dr. Robert L. Forward and Robert Hoyt to commercialize applications of [[tether]]s for space propulsion and other applications

{{Stub}}

==External Links==
[http://www.tethers.com Tethers Unlimited website]

[[Category:Vendors]]

Tethers Unlimited

2007-02-06T21:55:18Z

Geoffrey.landis:

'''Tethers Unlimited''' (or "TU") is a company founded by the late Dr. Robert Forward and Robert Hoyt to commercialize applications of [[tethers]] for space propulsion and other applications

{{Stub}}

==External Links==
[http://www.tethers.com Tethers Unlimited website]

[[Category:Vendors]]

Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport

2007-02-06T21:52:41Z

Geoffrey.landis:

{{Stub}}
The '''Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport''' is located on Wallops Island, Virginia, the site of a [[NASA]] launch site formerly used for Scout satellite launches, and currently still in use for NASA sounding rocket launches.

It is now one of five commercial spaceports licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Located at the Eastern Shore facility in Virginia, the debut launch from the spaceport was an Air Force [[Minotaur 1]] rocket, carrying experimental military and NASA satellites into orbit on December 16, 2006. The Pentagon has scheduled two more launches of Minotaur 1 rockets to send up satellites from this facility. NASA and a private aerospace company are planning to test a new launch vehicle at Mid-Atlantic Regional. NASA also provides command and control support for the spaceport.

--External Links==
*[http://www.vaspace.org/ VASpace]] (note, site seems to be down-- check later?)
*[http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=92718&ran=247040 News article on spaceport]

[[Category:Spaceports]]

He3

2007-02-06T21:46:14Z

Geoffrey.landis: Redirecting to Helium3

#REDIRECT[[Helium3]]

Solar wind

2007-02-06T21:42:13Z

Geoffrey.landis: stub

The '''solar wind''' is a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun. The solar wind is primarily protons ([[hydrogen]] ions), but also has some components of higher mass, including deuterium and helium, as well as electrons. The solar wind has a density of a few particles per cubic centimeter, and moves at a speed of a bit over a million km/hr. Both the density and the speed of the solar wind change with the activity of the sun.

The solar wind is deflected by magnetic fields, and hence does not directly impact the Earth's surface or atmosphere. Lacking a magnetic field, the moon is directly exposed to the solar wind, and hence solar wind elements can be found implanted into lunar soil. Hydrogen implanted into the soil might be a resource for lunar [[In Situ Resource Utilization]] (see [[Volatile Scavenging]], and [[Helium 3]] from the solar wind has been proposed as possible fusion fuel.

{{stub}}

Helium

2007-02-06T21:34:53Z

Geoffrey.landis: added fusion as a separate topic

''Helium 3'' is a rare isotope of the element Helium, consisting of a nucleus with two protons and one neutron. The approved abbreviation (for physics use) for Helium-3 is 3He, however, the abbreviation He3 is also seen.

Since most of the Earth's helium is produced by alpha-decay of Uranium isotopes, resulting in 4He (the most common isotope of Helium), 3He is rare on Earth. It is comparatively more abundant in non-terrestrial sources, although even in non-terrestrial sources, only a small fraction of helium atoms are Helium 3.

The Moon is a source of 3He, which is implanted into the lunar [[regolith]] by the [[solar wind]]. Helium is present in the soil in quantities of ten to a hundred (weight) parts per million, and 0.003 to 1 percent of this amount (depending on soil) is 3He.

==Helium 3 as a Fusion Reaction Fuel==

It has been proposed that 3He might be a possible fuel for a [[Nuclear Fusion]] reactor to produce energy using the nuclear reaction:

2D + 3He --> 4He + 1H

This reaction has the advantage over the more-commonly proposed D-T fusion reaction that the reaction produces only charged particles (an alpha particle and a proton), with no production of neutrons. However, the corresponding difficulty is that the D-3He reaction has an ignition barrier that is twice as high as the barrier to igniting D-T fusion, because of the fact that the Helium nucleus has twice the charge of a Tritium nucleus.

So far, D-3He fusion has not yet demonstrated net energy production ("break even").

==Value of Lunar Helium 3 in Today's Market==

Since He3 has a high market value today, it might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market, although since He3 has no current uses other than laboratory experiments, it is not clear how large the market is.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value per unit weight of [[Gold]] and over eight times the value of [[Rhodium]].

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US [[Tritium]] and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US [[Tritium]] production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the [[regolith]] to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source (either [[Nuclear Fission]] or [[RTG]], or large solar panels (see [[Solar Power]]).

[[Basalt]] has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (in the Maria regions) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A [[Solar Power]] based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV 10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a [[Nuclear Fission]] power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

==== Baked Regolith ====
:{|
|-
|A commonly discussed method is cooking the [[Regolith]] to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.

Here is a reference with some details (1989, H. H. Schmitt et al):

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/pdf/fdm817.pdf

They describe three steps:
1) heat to a few hundred deg C to drive off the volatiles
2) fractional distillation to decant off the heavy volatiles
3) separate He3 from the He4 using standard superleak process

Two challenges are devising a method to process large quantities of regolith as the He3 is at a low concentration, and providing a high power thermally efficient heat source on the Moon.

This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) might be 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second = 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year
|-
|}

== Applications ==

*Medical Lung Imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Details on this experimental application of He3: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

==Links==

*[[Resource Values | Value of commodities (including He3)]]

== External Links ==
*[http://www.tunl.duke.edu/nucldata/HTML/A=3/03He_1987.shtml Nuclear data]

{{Cleanup}}
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Elements]]
[[Category:Life Support (Power Supply)]]

Helium

2007-02-06T21:33:07Z

Geoffrey.landis:

''Helium 3'' is a rare isotope of the element Helium, consisting of a nucleus with two protons and one neutron. The approved abbreviation (for physics use) for Helium-3 is 3He, however, the abbreviation He3 is also seen.

Since most of the Earth's helium is produced by alpha-decay of Uranium isotopes, resulting in 4He (the most common isotope of Helium), 3He is rare on Earth. It is comparatively more abundant in non-terrestrial sources, although even in non-terrestrial sources, only a small fraction of helium atoms are Helium 3.

It has been proposed that 3He might be a possible fuel for a [[Nuclear Fusion]] reactor to produce energy using the nuclear reaction:

2D + 3He --> 4He + 1H

This reaction has the advantage over the more-commonly proposed D-T fusion reaction that the reaction produces only charged particles (an alpha particle and a proton), with no production of neutrons. However, the corresponding difficulty is that the D-3He reaction has an ignition barrier that is twice as high as the barrier to igniting D-T fusion, because of the fact that the Helium nucleus has twice the charge of a Tritium nucleus.

So far, D-3He fusion has not yet demonstrated net energy production ("break even").

The Moon is a source of 3He, which is implanted into the lunar [[regolith]] by the [[solar wind]]. Helium is present in the soil in quantities of ten to a hundred (weight) parts per million, and 0.003 to 1 percent of this amount (depending on soil) is 3He.

==Value of Lunar Helium 3 in Today's Market==

Since He3 has a high market value today, it might be worth collecting He3 from the Moon today simply to sell into the existing terrestrial market, although since He3 has no current uses other than laboratory experiments, it is not clear how large the market is.

Current market price for He3 is about $46,500 per troy ounce ($1500/gram, $1.5M/kg), more than 120 times the value per unit weight of [[Gold]] and over eight times the value of [[Rhodium]].

Question: can we reduce the cost of recovering He3 from the lunar surface to that level, e.g. $1500 per gram? What would be the capital cost of setting up a small He3 production facility on Luna?

Would it depress the market price today? That depends on the size of the market, and there is not much data on that.

The US [[Tritium]] and helium-3 stockpile sizes are classified, because they give a hint as to how many US nuclear weapons are still functional. According to Wikipedia “approximately 150 kilograms of it (He3) have resulted from decay of US [[Tritium]] production since 1955.” We could assume a similar quantity has been accumulated in the ex-USSR, and perhaps additionally from other thermonuclear powers (UK, France, China).

Today, the world's supply of Helium-3 can probably be counted in hundreds of kilograms, value of 100 kg would be $150M. So the total stockpile value today is probably about half a billion USD.

The US DOE does sell He3 commercially, but how much of the present stockpile has actually been sold on the open market? Not sure if that number is publicly available.

But for arguments sake let us start at the level of collecting 100kg of He3 from the Moon and assume its value would be $150M.

Well alas even those number do not look good.

The cost of soft landing even a small probe on to the lunar surface would easily cost that much or more. How much He3 could a small lander manufacture? How many grams per day?

Well that of course depends on the production method.

A commonly discussed method is cooking the [[regolith]] to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.
This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source (either [[Nuclear Fission]] or [[RTG]], or large solar panels (see [[Solar Power]]).

[[Basalt]] has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (in the Maria regions) is 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second
= 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year

Whether this business concept is viable depends on how quickly we want to amortize our investment.

Let us say our target is to produce 100 kg He3 in one year, then we need a power source of about 200 KW. That would give us a revenue stream of $150M per year assuming the He3 market does not become flooded and the price drops.

How much would it cost to set up a 200KW power source on the Moon?

A [[Solar Power]] based system would be in darkness 50% of the time, so would need to operate at 400 KW. If it were on a lunar polar mountain top it might be in near continuous illumination. Let us assume that best case of 100% lighting.

Assuming PV 10% efficiency and a fully steerable array, this would need an area of about 2,000 square meters, or about 45 metres square.

A simple non-PV solar reflector could be near 100% efficient, needing only 200 sq-m or 14 metres square, or aperture.

Setting up a 14 m aperture mirror on the Moon would be a major engineering challenge, although fortunately would not need to be particularly accurate, certainly nothing like as difficult as an astronomical telescope mirror.

How much would it weigh?

Would a [[Nuclear Fission]] power plant have better performance per kilogram of lander payload?

Maybe other contributors are interested to develop these lines of thinking.

More thermal analysis needs to be done. For example, might it be possible to recycle the heat using some form of cogeneration. Such as use the hot waste regolith, after it has been processed, to pre-heat the next incoming batch of raw dust, and thus reduce the number of solar joules needed?

That could greatly reduce the size of solar array needed and/or significantly increase the system mass throughput.

== Extraction ==

==== Baked Regolith ====
:{|
|-
|A commonly discussed method is cooking the [[Regolith]] to about 1400 degF or 760 deg C.

Here is a reference with some details (1989, H. H. Schmitt et al):

http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/pdf/fdm817.pdf

They describe three steps:
1) heat to a few hundred deg C to drive off the volatiles
2) fractional distillation to decant off the heavy volatiles
3) separate He3 from the He4 using standard superleak process

Two challenges are devising a method to process large quantities of regolith as the He3 is at a low concentration, and providing a high power thermally efficient heat source on the Moon.

This would require a lot of energy, requiring the lander to have either a nuclear source, or large solar panels.

Basalt has specific heat capacity of 0.24 cal/g/degC or 0.84 KJ/kg degK.

To heat 1kg of basalt by 700degC requires about 600 KJ

Best lunar regolith (Maria) might be 0.01 ppm of He3

So the 600 KJ will yield 0.01 milligrams of He3

So 600 Watts power source could produce 0.01 mg He3 per second = 0.6 mg/minute = 36mg/hour = 864mg/day = 315 grams per year
|-
|}

== Applications ==

*Medical Lung Imaging
:According to Wikipedia:
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_3
:Details on this experimental application of He3: http://cerncourier.com/main/article/41/8/14

==Links==

*[[Resource Values | Value of commodities (including He3)]]

== External Links ==
*[http://www.tunl.duke.edu/nucldata/HTML/A=3/03He_1987.shtml Nuclear data]

{{Cleanup}}
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Elements]]
[[Category:Life Support (Power Supply)]]

Henry Spencer

2007-02-06T20:59:06Z

Geoffrey.landis: moved from H. Spencer

''Henry Spencer'' is a well known writer on the Usenet sci.space.* newsgroups, and an investigator for [[Lunette]] experiment.

SP Systems, Box 280 Stn. A, Toronto, ON, M5W 1B2 Canada

[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Selenology]]

John Glenn Research Center

2007-01-16T22:33:02Z

Geoffrey.landis: droped non-existing link

The '''NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field''' (usually referred to as ''NASA Glenn'', or ''GRC'') is one of the research and development centers ("Field Centers") set up by [[NASA]].

NASA Glenn was established in 1941 as the ''National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory''. When NACA dissolved and NASA was established in 1958, it became the NASA Lewis Research Center. It was officially renamed the John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in 1999.

In addition to a major role in aeronautics research, NASA Glenn is a center for research on space power and propulsion, communications, and microgravity. Its heritage in the field of space propulsion heritage the development of the liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen rocket engine, considered by Von Braun to be one of the key technologies to the success of the [[Apollo]] program in landing humans on the moon, and the development of advanced space propulsion technologies such as the ion engine, which was first developed and tested by NASA Lewis (now Glenn) scientists.

==External LInks==
*[http://www.grc.nasa.gov NASA Glenn Home page]

{{stub}}

NASA

2007-01-16T22:28:35Z

Geoffrey.landis: placeholder and a link

'''NASA''' is the '''National Aeronautics and Space Administration'''. Established in 1957, NASA is the United States lead agency for aeronautics and space research, and runs the U.S. civilian space program.

On May 25, 1961, NASA was assigned the task by President John F. Kennedy of "landing a man on the surface of the moon and returning him safely to Earth" by the end of the decade; this goal was accomplished by the [[Apollo]] project in July, 1969

NASA's headquarters is in Washington, D.C., but the actual NASA work is accomplished at the nine NASA '''Field Centers,''' as well as by universities and private industry under contract to NASA.
 

==Links==

*[http://www.nasa.gov NASA home page]

'''NASA Flight Centers''' :
*[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html NASA Kennedy Space Center] in Florida
*[http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/ NASA Johnson Space Center], in Houston
*[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html NASA Goddard Space Flight Center] in Maryland
*[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/home/index.html NASA Stennis Space Center] in MIssissippi
'''NASA Research Centers''':
*[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/home/index.html NASA Dryden Flight Research Center] in California
*[http://www.arc.nasa.gov NASA Ames Research Center] in California
*[[NASA John Glenn Research Center]] in Ohio
*[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/home/index.html NASA Langley Research Center] in Virginia
and one affiliated laboratory,
*[http://www.jpl.nasa.gov NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory] in California

{{stub}}

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

2007-01-16T21:57:23Z

Geoffrey.landis: redirect

#Redirect [NASA]

N.A.S.A.

2007-01-16T21:55:55Z

Geoffrey.landis: redirect

#Redirect [NASA]

John Glenn Research Center

2007-01-16T21:54:17Z

Geoffrey.landis: stub and link

The '''NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field''' (usually referred to as ''NASA Glenn'', or ''GRC'') is one of the research and development centers ("Field Centers") set up by [[NASA]].

NASA Glenn was established in 1941 as the ''National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory''. When NACA dissolved and NASA was established in 1958, it became the NASA Lewis Research Center. It was officially renamed the John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in 1999.

In addition to a major role in aeronautics research, NASA Glenn is a center for research on space power and propulsion, communications, and microgravity. Its heritage in the field of space propulsion heritage the development of the liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen rocket engine, considered by Von Braun to be one of the key technologies to the success of the [[Apollo]] program in landing humans on the moon, and the development of advanced space propulsion technologies such as the [[ion engine]], which was first developed and tested by NASA Lewis (now Glenn) scientists.

==External LInks==
*[http://www.grc.nasa.gov NASA Glenn Home page]

{{stub}}

Fluorine Reaction

2007-01-16T21:43:44Z

Geoffrey.landis: start

'''Fluorine reaction''' refers to a series of chemical reactions intended to produce [[LUNOX | oxygen]] (and possibly other materials) by the [[reduction]] of [[Lunar Regolith | lunar regolith]]. It is a form of [[In Situ Resource Utilization]].

In the basis process, fluorine is reacted with the lunar material at elevated temperature. The fluorine attacks the oxides, liberating oxygen and producing fluoride salts. The fluoride salts are then separated into fluorine and reduced metals by electrolysis.

In a variant version of the process, hydrofluoric acid, rather than gasseous fluorine, is used to attack the lunar material.

The fluorine reaction has the advantage that, since fluorine is more electronegative than oxygen, fluorine will displace oxygen from any composition of lunar rock. Hence, in principle, the process chemistry does not require finding any particular mineral source, or beneficiation of the soil to enhance the content of a particular mineral.

Recently [[Geoffrey A. Landis]] of the [[NASA John Glenn Research Center]] has proposed that the use of the fluoride reaction sequence could be a method by which processing lunar materials could be done to produce [[silicon]] as well as iron, [[aluminum]], and the basic oxide components of [[glass]], which could be used in manufacturing, as well as producing oxygen. In his proposal the fluorine is brought to the moon in the form of potassium fluoride, and is liberated from the salt by electrolysis in a eutectic salt melt. Tetrafluorosilane produced by this process is reduced to silicon by a plasma reduction stage; and the fluorine salts are reduced to metals by reaction with metallic potassium to form potassium fluoride, KF, the original starting material). Fluorine is recovered from residual MgF and CaF2 by reaction with K2O.

==External Links==
*[http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/citations/all/tm-2005-214014.html paper "Materials Refining for Solar Array Production on the Moon"]
*[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1991rnes.nasa...11S abstract "Oxygen extraction from lunar soil by fluorination" (1991)] (PDF)

{{stub}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]

Oxygen

2007-01-16T21:13:05Z

Geoffrey.landis: /* Methods of LUNOX Production */

'''LUNOX''' is short for ''Lun''ar ''Ox''ygen, which is oxygen harvested from resources available on the moon. Oxygen is a major requirement for sustaining any human presence on the lunar surface, useful both for life support and also as a major component of rocket fuel. Lunar Oxygen production is one category of [[In Situ Resource Utilization]], or ''ISRU''.
==Oxygen==
{|
| Atomic symbol: || O ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 8 ||
|-
| Group: || 16 ||
|-
| Period: || 2 ||
|-
| Series: || Chalcogens ||
|-
|}
 
==Methods of LUNOX Production==
Most of the methods of lunar oxygen production envision the [[reduction]] of lunar [[regolith]] or rocks to liberate oxygen, although another possible method of harvesting oxygen is to free small amounts of trapped gas from soil by heating. Reduction methods include:
*Aluminum reduction
*Carbothermal reduction
*[[Fluorine reaction]]
*[[Ilmenite Reduction]]
*[[Magma electrolysis]]
*Methane reduction

In any Lunox production sequence, it is necessary that all reactants are returned to the initial state.

==External Links==

*[http://nss.org/settlement/nasa/spaceresvol3/plsoom1.htm lunar oxygen process sequence discussion from Knudson and Gibson (1989)] (note: a good summary of approaches, but somewhat out of date)
*[http://www.moonminer.com/Moondust_index.html Lunar processing links from David Dietzler]
*[http://www.magicdragon.com/ComputerFutures/SpacePublications/llox-footnoted.html LLOX automated production summary (1990)]

 
[[Category:Life Support (Air Supply)]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
{{Stub}}

Talk:List of ISRU

2007-01-16T21:09:25Z

Geoffrey.landis: duplications?

List of ISRU methods here and on the LUNOX page seem to be duplication of content. I updated this page to make it more consistent with the list on the LUNOX page, but I'm not sure what we can do to avoid the duplication.
[[User:Geoffrey.landis|Geoffrey.landis]] 13:09, 16 January 2007 (PST)

Stanley Borowski

2007-01-16T20:54:33Z

Geoffrey.landis: it's a start

Dr. '''Stanley K. Borowski''' is an engineer at the [[NASA]] [[John Glenn Research Center]]. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in nuclear engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, and his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan. His primary research area is ''Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket Propulsion''.

==External links==
[http://world-nuclear-university.org/html/summer_institute/2005/faculty_bios/borowski.pdf bio page] (PDF)

{{stub}}

[[category:people|Borowski, Stanley]]

Marianne Dyson

2007-01-16T20:38:36Z

Geoffrey.landis:

Marianne Dyson is a writer, a former [[NASA]] mission controller, and a former director of the [[National Space Society]].

==Books==
Marianne Dyson is the author of the books:
*''Space Station Science'' (won the Golden Kite Award for best nonfiction book of 1999
*''Homework Help on the Internet''
*''The Space Explorer's Guide to Stars & Galaxies'' (book 8 of Scholastic’s Space University series)
*''Home on the Moon''
*''Space and Astronomy: Decade by Decade'' (to be published from Facts on File in April 2007)

==External Link==
*[http://mariannedyson.com/ Marianne Dyson's home page]

{{stub}}
[[Category:People|Dyson, Marianne]]

Daniel Brandenstein

2007-01-16T20:36:07Z

Geoffrey.landis: formatting updated

{{Stub}}

==External Links==

*[http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/brandenstein-dc.html Astronaut Bio: Daniel C. Brandenstein]

[[Category:People|Brandenstein, Daniel]]
[[Category:Astronauts|Brandenstein, Daniel]]
[[Category:Current and Former NSS Presidents|Brandenstein, Daniel]]

Marianne Dyson

2007-01-16T20:33:13Z

Geoffrey.landis: formatting updated

Marianne Dyson is a writer, a former NASA mission controller, and a former director of the [[National Space Society]].

==Books==
Marianne Dyson is the author of the books"
*''Space Station Science'' (won the Golden Kite Award for best nonfiction book of 1999
*''Homework Help on the Internet''
*''The Space Explorer's Guide to Stars & Galaxies'' (book 8 of Scholastic’s Space University series)
*''Home on the Moon''
*''Space and Astronomy: Decade by Decade'' (to be published from Facts on File in April 2007)

==External Link==
*[http://mariannedyson.com/ Marianne Dyson's home page]

{{stub}}

Marianne Dyson

2007-01-16T20:30:07Z

Geoffrey.landis:

Marianne Dyson is a writer, a former NASA mission controller, and a former director of the [[National Space Society]].

==Books==
Marianne Dyson is the author of the books
*Space Station Science (won the Golden Kite Award for best nonfiction book of 1999
*Homework Help on the Internet
*The Space Explorer's Guide to Stars & Galaxies (book 8 of Scholastic’s Space University series)
*Home on the Moon
*Space and Astronomy: Decade by Decade (to be published from Facts on File in April 2007)

==External Link==
*[http://mariannedyson.com/ Marianne Dyson's home page]

Thorium

2007-01-16T20:22:30Z

Geoffrey.landis: format error corrected

{{Stub}} 
{|
| Atomic symbol: || Th ||
|-
| Atomic number: || 90 ||
|-
| Group: || n/a ||
|-
| Period: || 7 ||
|-
| Series: || Actinides ||
|-
|}
 
Naturally Occuring Isotopes
*Th232
 
Thorium is a soft, very ductile, silver-gray, heavy, metallic element of the actinide series of elements. Thorium is used in some high strength alloys and ultraviolet photoelectric cells.
Thorium is present in small quantities in all volcanic rocks. Uranium-Thorium radioactive dating is a key technique for establishing the date of rocks.

When bombarded with neutrons thorium becomes [[uranium]] 233, a fuel for nuclear reactors. Since nuclear reactors produce neutrons, this cycle can be used as a self-sustaining nuclear reaction producing power from Thorium fuel, although at present no commercial reactors use this fuel.

==External Links==
*[http://www.uic.com.au/nip67.htm page on Thorium as a nuclear fuel]

[[Category:Chemistry]]

Thorium

2007-01-16T20:21:46Z

Geoffrey.landis: some additions

Orion (disambiguation)

2007-01-16T20:01:46Z

Geoffrey.landis: added constellation and 2001

*[[Orion (CEV)]] is the proposed NASA lunar crew vehicle 
*The lunar module for [[Apollo 16]]
*[[Orion (nuclear)]] is a proposed propulsion system utilizing nuclear bombs as propellant 
*The NASA [http://www.californiasciencecenter.org/Exhibits/AirAndSpace/MissionToThePlanets/OrionRocket/OrionRocket.php Orion Sounding Rocket] 
*The Argentine [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/orion1.htm Orion Sounding Rocket] 
*The [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1990icss.conf..375C Orion I] communications satellite 
*''Orion'' is the name of the ''Pan Am Space Clipper'' shown in the movie [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/ 2001: A Space Odyssey] 
*The [http://www.crystalinks.com/orion.html constellation] [http://www.seds.org/Maps/Stars_en/Fig/orion.html Orion]

Magma electrolysis

2007-01-16T19:49:58Z

Geoffrey.landis: typo corrected

'''Magma electrolysis''' is one proposed method of producing [[LUNOX | oxygen]] from lunar materials. In its simplest form, the method consists of melting the lunar regolith and passing an electric current through the melt, liberating oxygen at one electrode and [[Reduction | reducing]] the material to a lower oxidation state at the other. A ''flux'' material is typically used to reduce the melting temperature of lunar soil, however, the process temperatures for magma reduction are nevertheless typically in the range 1300-1400 C (ref: [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leag2005/pdf/2042.pdf Gimmett 2005])

Significant experimental work on the process has been done by Dr. Edward McCullough at Boeing. (Ref. McCullough and Mariz, "Lunar Oxygen Production via Magma Electrolysis", ''Proc. Space-90 Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space'', Albuquerque, New Mexico, 22-26 April 1990, pp. 347-356)

==Links==
*[[LUNOX]]
*[[Reduction]]

==External Links==

*[http://nss.org/settlement/nasa/spaceresvol3/plsoom1.htm lunar oxygen process sequence discussion from Knudson and Gibson (1989)] (note: a good summary of approaches, but somewhat out of date)
*[http://www.moonminer.com/Magma-process.html Magma electrolysis sequence proposed by David Dietzler]
*[http://www.magicdragon.com/ComputerFutures/SpacePublications/llox-footnoted.html LLOX automated production summary (1990)]
*[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1991rnes.nasaS...7C Colson and Haskin paper on Magma electrolysis, 1991]

[[Category:Chemistry]]
{{Stub}}

In Situ Resource Utilization

2007-01-16T19:45:14Z

Geoffrey.landis: link added

'''In Situ Resource Utilization''' (''ISRU'') refers to the production of useful materials from the resources available at a given location. (The phrase is from the Latin ''in situ'', meaning "at the site", or "in place".)

One form of ISRU is [[In-Situ Propellant Production]], (''ISPP''), or manufacture of rocket fuel from local resources; the term ISPP is no longer currently much used, in favor of the more generic terminology ISRU, which incorporates use of in-situ resources for uses other than propellant.

ISRU can be categorized into production of materials useful at the current location, primarily:
*life support
*propellant
*radiation shielding
*[[List of Construction Materials | construction]] and structural materials
*raw materials for other production useful for habitat expansion

materials produced for use elsewhere in space:
*propellant for exploration and colonization
*building materials for habitats and spacecraft

and materials produced as commodities for possible sale back to Earth:
*high-value materials, such as [[Platinum Group Metals]]
*bulk materials, such as nickel and iron refined from asteroidal resources
*materials for manufacture of solar power satellites to export energy to Earth

==Links==
*[[List of ISRU]]
*[[LUNOX]]
*[[Resource Values | Value of commodities]]

 

{{Stub}}

List of Construction Materials

2007-01-16T19:42:29Z

Geoffrey.landis: added link to cast basalt page

[[Cast Basalt]] 
[[Sulfurous Concrete]] 
[[Sintered Regolith]]

==Links==
*[[List of ISRU]]
*[[In Situ Resource Utilization]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/moon_mining_041110.html Cast basalt article by Harrison Hsu] (pdf)

[[Category:Urban Planning]]
[[Category:Components]]
[[Category:Hardware Plans]]

List of Resources

2007-01-16T19:32:05Z

Geoffrey.landis: correction corrected

[[Aluminum]] 
[[Anorthite]] 
[[Argon]] 
[[Calcium]] 
[[Carbon]] 
[[Chromite]] 
[[Chromium]] 
[[Helium3]] 
[[Hydrogen]] 
[[Ilmenite]] 
[[Impact Glass]] 
[[Iron]] 
[[KREEP]] 
[[Lunar Regolith]] 
[[Lunar Soil]] 
[[LUNOX]] 
[[Magnesium]] 
[[Neon]] 
[[Nitrogen]] 
[[Olivine]] 
[[Platinum Group Metals]] 
[[Pyroxene]] 
[[Silicon]] 
[[Solar Power]] 
[[Solar Wind]] 
[[Thorium]] 
[[Titanium]] 
[[Volcanic Glass]] 

==Links==

*[[List of ISRU]]
*[[In Situ Resource Utilization]]

[[Category:Components]]
[[Category:Urban Planning]]
[[Category:Hardware Plans]]

List of Resources

2007-01-16T19:31:17Z

Geoffrey.landis: formatting typo

[[Aluminum]] 
[[Anorthite]] 
[[Argon]] 
[[Calcium]] 
[[Carbon]] 
[[Chromite]] 
[[Chromium]] 
[[Helium3]] 
[[Hydrogen]] 
[[Ilmenite]] 
[[Impact Glass]] 
[[Iron]] 
[[KREEP]] 
[[Lunar Regolith]] 
[[Lunar Soil]] 
[[LUNOX]] 
[[Magnesium]] 
[[Neon]] 
[[Nitrogen]] 
[[Olivine]] 
[[Platinum Group Metals]] 
[[Pyroxene]] 
[[Silicon]] 
[[Solar Power]] 
[[Solar Wind]] 
[[Thorium]] 
[[Titanium]] 
[[Volcanic Glass]] 

==Links==

*[List of ISRU]
*[[In Situ Resource Utilization]]

[[Category:Components]]
[[Category:Urban Planning]]
[[Category:Hardware Plans]]

List of Resources

2007-01-16T19:30:26Z

Geoffrey.landis: links added

[[Aluminum]] 
[[Anorthite]] 
[[Argon]] 
[[Calcium]] 
[[Carbon]] 
[[Chromite]] 
[[Chromium]] 
[[Helium3]] 
[[Hydrogen]] 
[[Ilmenite]] 
[[Impact Glass]] 
[[Iron]] 
[[KREEP]] 
[[Lunar Regolith]] 
[[Lunar Soil]] 
[[LUNOX]] 
[[Magnesium]] 
[[Neon]] 
[[Nitrogen]] 
[[Olivine]] 
[[Platinum Group Metals]] 
[[Pyroxene]] 
[[Silicon]] 
[[Solar Power]] 
[[Solar Wind]] 
[[Thorium]] 
[[Titanium]] 
[[Volcanic Glass]] 

==Links==

*{List of ISRU]
*[[In Situ Resource Utilization]]

[[Category:Components]]
[[Category:Urban Planning]]
[[Category:Hardware Plans]]

Lunar Soil

2007-01-16T19:26:10Z

Geoffrey.landis: oops, deleted some unintended links

The layer of debris which blankets most of the moon is commonly refered to as [[Lunar Regolith | regolith]]. The portion of the regolith of a size less than 1 cm is generally referred to as '''lunar soil'''.

The term "lunar soil" should not be confused with terrestrial use of the word ''soil'', and no implication of organic content is intended.

==Links==
[[Lunar Regolith]]

==External Links==
*Lunar Soil at Wikipedia.org [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil]

[[Category:Selenology]]

{{stub}}

Lunar Regolith

2007-01-16T19:26:10Z

Geoffrey.landis: oops, deleted some unintended links

Lunar Soil

2007-01-16T19:25:25Z

Geoffrey.landis: added brief definition

Lunar Regolith

2007-01-16T19:25:25Z

Geoffrey.landis: added brief definition

Lunar Regolith

2007-01-16T19:21:36Z

Geoffrey.landis: links added

{{Stub}} [[Image:658px-Moon_Comp_Graph.JPG|thumb|Relative Concentration Of Various Elements On The Lunar Surface]]
[[Image:800px-Moon_VS_Earth_Composition.JPG|thumb|Relative Concentration (in weight ppm) of Various Elements on Lunar Highlands, Lunar Lowlands, and Earth]]
The layer of debris which blankets most of the moon is commonly refered to as regolith. Billions of years of bombardment from space has created a highly comminuted (this means it has been broken into ever smaller grains and particles) surface through a process sometimes referered to as "impact gardening" or "space weathering." It is estimated that the regolith varies in thickness from 3 to 5 meters over the younger "maria" to approximatly 10 to 20 meters thick in the older "highlands." Below the impact regolith is a layer of "mega-regolith" consisting of highly fractered bedrock that is tens of kilometers thick.
 
The portion of the regolith of a size less than 1cm is generally referred to as [[Lunar Soil]], and the dusty, abrasive portion is referred to as [[Lunar Dust]] or "Fines."
 
Lunar regolith is the focus of many proposed methods of [[LUNOX | oxygen production]] and [[In Situ Resource Utilization | in-situ resource utilization]] including:
*[[Ilmenite Reduction]]
*[[Glass Reduction]]
*[[Radiation shielding]]
*[[Volatile scavenging]]

==External Links==
*Lunar Soil at Wikipedia.org [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil]
*PERMANENT.com [http://permanent.com/ http://permanent.com/]
*ISRU on the Moon. by Larry Taylor [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar_knowledge/LTaylor.pdf http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar_knowledge/LTaylor.pdf] (PDF) 

[[Category:Selenology]]

Lunar Soil

2007-01-16T19:15:04Z

Geoffrey.landis: placeholder link to regolith

==Links==
[[Lunar Regolith]]

{{stub}}