Field testing of a pneumatic regolith feed system during a 2010 ISRU field campaign on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Author:

Craft, Jack, Zacny, Kris, Chu, Philip, Wison, Jack, Santoro, Chris, Carlson, Lee, Maksymuk, Michael

Title:

Field testing of a pneumatic regolith feed system during a 2010 ISRU field campaign on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Periodical:

AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference and Exposition; 30 Aug. - 2 Sep. 2010

Year:

2010

Subject:

NASA Mauna Kea Oxygen Geology Mauna Kea

Summary:

Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) consists of a number of tasks starting with mining of lunar regolith, followed by the transfer of regolith to an oxygen extraction reactor and finally processing the regolith and storing of extracted oxygen. The transfer of regolith from the regolith hopper at the ground level to an oxygen extraction reactor many feet above the surface could be accomplished in different ways, including using a mechanical auger, bucket ladder system or a pneumatic system. The latter system is commonly used on earth when moving granular materials since it offers high reliability and simplicity of operation. In this paper, we describe a pneumatic regolith feed system, delivering feedstock to a Carbothermal reactor and lessons learned from deploying the system during the 2010 ISRU field campaign on the Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

URL:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20100033637.pdf

Date:

Aug 30, 2010

Collection:

Monographs