Lunar Development

Regolith Excavtor Contest

NASA Centennial Challanges prize competition  has a new challange worth $250,000 to theteam that can build an autononomously operated excavtor which can deliver the most regolith to a collector within 30 minutes in a head to head competiton to be held in late 2006 or 2007.

MoonToday.net

Space.com

Peter Kohk Question's Idea of Polar Lunar Base

Kohk states the two main reasons for locating a base at either the North or the South Pole of the Moon is not the Water ice or the Astronomy but the constant sunlight for power and the temperature stability.  He states that these are not good reasons to be at the pole. First a base will need some other back up form of power besides solar so relying solely on solar will not be an option no matter where the base is. I would add that relying solely on solar is suicidal as a landing on bare regolith will sand blast everything for 2 Km so an emergency landing near the solar arrays would kill everyone on the base if that was the sole power source.

Second ,covering the base with regolith will protect the base from temperature swing and the base will need to be covered to protect it from radiation anyway. Even better would be to put the base in an intact lava tube.

He does not mention the orbital dynamics issues or the lighting issues. The lighting issues I think are the biggest problem. First the light is coming in parallel to the surface so that it will be hard to tell depth of any depressions.and shadows will be very long.. Second, because of the dust problem landings will need to occur away from points of eternal light which will make landings difficult if not impossible due to darkness and sun angle.

Money for Lunar Oxygen

NASA is finally putting money into an important lunar enabling technology. Funding

ILMENOX for 1.8 milliion with British Titianium serving as prime contractor and Florida Tech getting $430,000 for the lunar oxygen project..

Centenial Challanges offering $250,000 for the first team to pull breathable oxygen from lunar Simulant in its MoonROx challange. Great idea Brant!

Dust in the Solar Wind, Metaphor and Reality

There is a lot of articles about Moon Dust Some as metaphore some about the reality.

There is a new book called Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth By Andrew Smith, about the remaining Apollo Astronauts and what they are up to.

Here are some reviews- Robin McKie ,Christopher Silvester,  Pat Kane

Now to the Reality. In Don't Breathe the Moon Dust the Health effects pf Regolith are discussed. Evdently Mars Regolith is especially nasty.

Martian dust could be even worse. It's not only a mechanical irritant but also perhaps a chemical poison. Mars is red because its surface is largely composed of iron oxide (rust) and oxides of other minerals. Some scientists suspect that the dusty soil on Mars may be such a strong oxidizer that it burns any organic compound such as plastics, rubber or human skin as viciously as undiluted lye or laundry bleach.

"If you get Martian soil on your skin, it will leave burn marks," believes University of Colorado engineering professor Stein Sture,

One thing to think about is that most modern cities are thoroughly paved rarely do people walk on open ground, so why should we assume that we will have unprepared landing pads and drive and walk through lose regolith? Paving landing pads, roads and walk ways will reduce dust exposure tremendously.

Also using lava tubes for radiation protection instead of burying surface structures in regolith will also reduce exposure to dust significantly.

Another idea of what to do with the Moon dust is make it into solar panels.

Here's how local scientists propose to power the first human outpost on another world: Launch a rover to the moon and melt its dusty soil into acres of electricity-generating solar panels. A year later, when astronauts arrive, all they have to do is plug into the grid.

If this machince could caught the nitrogen, noble gases and water coming off the regolith it would be perfect.

Lunar Resources articles

Aerospace America has a Frank Sietzen article Mapping the Moon's Resources.

Space.Com has a Robert Roy Britt article Perfect Spot Found for Moon Base

Science @ NASA has Moon Water

The Space Review has a Sam Dinkin Interview with David Criswell on Lunar Solar Power and an Article By Sam Dinkin, Rectifying the case for beaming Lunar solar power .

Lunar Solar Power

David Criswell has been advocating using the Moon as a solar power satellite for years. I believe the time has come to work on the development of this idea.  The time is right with high oil prices and the return to the Moon on the horizon.

Lunar Simulate made into Solar Cells

For the first time lunar simulate has successfully been made into working solar cells. This is a big step forward. Though the cells only have a 1% efficiency, this is a good start.

Lunar Meteors

There has been a new lunar meteor found in Antarctica. It is only one of thirty that have been found. Another in found Oman has been traced back to Imbrium impact basin.

If you want to buy a piece of the moon you can buy a pendant with a small piece of one of these meteors from micro fine labs.

Dust Control on the Lunar Surface

One technology which will be critical to long term lunar development is dust control by fusing regolith. Look around any terrestrial city, there are cement, stone or brick side walks and streets, yet all the drawing of lunar bases have astronauts slogging through loose regolith. Regolith is extremely abrasive and hard to remove. Walking through loose regolith will destroy space suits. Regolith on the space suits could damage airlocks and the interior of the base. This is not to mention vehicles which will wear out quickly if require driving thought regolith frequently. Landing on loose regolith will sand blast everything within two kilometers. Solar collectors and telescopes are a real issue around loose regolith because even if the regolith is undisturbed by human activity the Horizon Glow Phenomena suggests that it is elevated by the Sun itself at lunar dawn and dusk.

Fused regolith could be used like terrestrial cement or bricks. This technology could easily be developed in conjunction with mining technology. Mining slag could be heated and formed into bricks or the regolith could be fused in place on the ground.

The key is to make lunar development economical in the long run we must have fused regolith landing pads, roads, walking paths, pads under solar collector and telescopes. While the geologists and miners will need to go out in loose regolith there is no reason the astronomer should every need to touch it. They could land on a prepared landing pad, get into a LRV and drive down a paved road to their telescope walk on a path to the solid pad under the telescope, adjust or repair their telescope and then drive back to the base near the landing pad never having touched loose regolith.

While technology and equipment to fuse regolith and work hours to use it will cost money. It will be far cheaper in the long run then replacing space suits, vehicles, telescopes, and solar collectors due to regolith damage. Not to mention the daily dust removal effort required inside the base if anybody steps outside.

Landing pads, Life Support Volatiles and Rocket Fuel from Mining

Two problems that can be solved simultaneously are the need for prepared landing facilities and the need for life support volatiles. Since the Moon as very little atmosphere and has low gravity particles raised from the lunar surface when a lunar vehicle lands will effectively become projectiles and travel balistically for up to 2 km damaging metal and glass surfaces. Particles land on all surfaces and are difficult to remove. The only effective long-term solution is to solidify the particles in the landing area into a solid surface. The melting temperature of lunar regolith is above 1200 degrees Celsius that is the point at which all of the solar wind volatiles are released. If a circle 250 meters in radius and two meters deep were mined, the regolith melted and put back as tiles, all the volatiles needed for the initial lunar base would be released. This is according to the estimated concentration approximations of volatiles by L. A. Haskin of 100 g of hydrogen per m3, 100 g of nitrogen per m3, 200 g of carbon per m3, 26 g per m3 of noble gases. Multiply these amounts by roughly 390,000 m3 of melted regolith for the landing pad and there will be 39,000 kg hydrogen, 39,000 kg nitrogen, 78,000 kg carbon and 10,140 kg of noble gases. Oxygen is present in much greater quantities. This should be more than enough for the initial life support needs of a lunar base.

One of the challenges to the design of any mining equipment that heats the regolith will be sulfur content. Lunar regolith is high in sulfur. If sulfur combines with hydrogen it will form sulfuric acid which could damage the equipment. But this sulfur could be very important to the future of lunar development. This is because it could be used as rocket fuel combining Sulfur and Oxygen to provide propulsion. Presently most fuel mixtures for regular rockets require hydrogen and Oxygen. While oxygen is plentiful, hydrogen even with the ice on the poles is rare on the Moon. So it would be extremely beneficial to find a substitute for hydrogen, which is plentiful on the Moon. Although at this point it is theoretical and would be highly polluting in Earth atmosphere, it could allow a lunar base to be self-sufficient in rocket fuel. Sulfur oxygen rocket would not be polluting the moon since the sulfur is already present.