PROJECT TITLE: Microchannel Processor for Extracting Water from Planetary Dust Particles
TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The proposed microchannel processor would extract water and/or other volatile compounds from fine-grained dust and regolith deposits found on the surfaces of Mars, the Moon, and asteroids. The core technology is an array of microchannel processors, each of which can process a small amount of dust by briefly heating it to the appropriate temperature, extracting its volatile constituents, recovering the excess heat, and ejecting the spent dust. Such a processor array is expected to have many beneficial characteristics including low mass per quantity of particulates processed and high thermal efficiency when compared to macroprocessing approaches. A complete system would include excavation of the particulate material on the planet surface, mechanical and/or electrostatic separation to remove coarse particles from the material stream, and a means of distribution of particulates to the processor array. An interfaced system would collect and condition the water or volatiles that are released in the reactor. The proposed research would establish the feasibility of using a microchannel processor for particulate materials and produce a system design concept that would allow issues associated with system integration to be addressed. Successful development could provide effective access to water on both the Moon and Mars.
POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
Preliminary analysis of the performance of this apparatus suggests that this will be competitive for Government and commercial applications including propellant and life support consumable operations on the Moon, Mars, or carbonaceous asteroids. The anticipated systems would be small enough to be deployed by robotic spacecraft. Development of the capability to process particulates in microchannel reactors can find industrial use in applications that involve the reaction of gases with particulates, such as in fluidized bed reactors.
NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Eric E. Rice
Orbital Technologies Corporation
Space Center, 1212 Fourier Drive
Madison , WI 53717
NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR
Orbital Technologies Corporation
Space Center, 1212 Fourier Drive
Madison , WI 53717