The mission goal, simply put, allows for transforming moon dust and rocks directly to usable products. This would be a major first step in generating the infrastructure required to allow a lunar settlement to produce needed items, reducing the extreme support cost of earth launches of consumables and other support materials.
The initial subscale mission concept is to generate a single pallet sized launch payload containing the necessary equipment to produce a single 750 mL water filled titanium vessel. This equipment is planned to be extensible so that if there is a desire for additional production, that can be accomplished with minimal additional materials. The required equipment will include common mining items such as shovels, pickaxes, and grinders. In addition, there will be five tanks required for the process reactor, constructed largely from NASA developed Teflon with a carbon overwrap to enhance mechanical strength. Sodium bromide will be supplied as the source of the bromine required for the reaction. This is a less efficient method for suppling the bromine necessary for the reaction, however, this will alleviate any range safety and handling concerns. Finally, a 3D printer equipped with a powder hopper will be required to transform the titanium powder produced in the reactor into a vacuum insulated tank.
Note that this goal cannot be achieved with a completely automated process. The basic concept of operations is that at the start of each processing cycle astronauts will feed the base materials both to the bromine reactor and the 3D printer feedstock hopper, check a few basic reactant levels and recover completed materials from the previous cycle. The final step is to start the automated process again with a simple push of a button. There is no further intervention needed until the cycle completes. The cycle length, which is dependent on many factors such as temperature, and material flow rates, can be as short as three (3) days and can be no longer than 12 days as it is limited by the 14-day lunar cycle. For the initial operation of the subscale mission there will be a need for daily process fluid sample analysis to be performed by the astronauts. Although the necessary astronaut intervention is intermittent and does not constitute more than several hours labor per cycle, this could represent a significant change in the public perception from astronauts as explorers and researchers to a more ‘blue collar’ bent. This may have a secondary benefit of allowing the taxpaying public to relate more to the astronauts as people and increase support for what they are intending to accomplish off world.
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