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Rocket Mining System Could Blast Ice from Lunar Craters
A mix of dust, rocks, and significant concentrations of water ice can be found inside permanently shaded lunar craters at the Moon's south pole. If that water ice can be extracted, it can be turned into breathable oxygen, rocket fuel, or water for thirsty astronauts. The extraction and purification of this dirty lunar ice is not an easy problem, and NASA is interested in creative solutions that can scale. The agency has launched a competition to solve this lunar ice mining challenge, and one of competitors thinks they can do it with a big robot, some powerful vacuums, and a rocket engine used like a drilling system. (It's what they call, brace yourself, their Resource Ore Concentrator using Kinetic Energy Targeted Mining—ROCKET M.)
This method disrupts lunar soil with a series of rocket plumes that fluidize ice regolith by exposing it to direct convective heating. It utilizes a 100 lbf rocket engine under a pressurized dome to enable deep cratering more than 2 meters below the lunar surface. During this process, ejecta from multiple rocket firings blasts up into the dome and gets funneled through a vacuum-like system that separates ice particles from the remaining dust and transports it into storage containers.
Unlike traditional mechanical excavators, the rocket mining approach would allow us to access frozen volatiles around boulders, breccia, basalt, and other obstacles. And most importantly, it's scalable and cost effective. Our system doesn't require heavy machinery or ongoing maintenance. The stored water can be electrolyzed as needed into oxygen and hydrogen utilizing solar energy to continue powering the rocket engine for more than 5 years of water excavation! This system would also allow us to rapidly excavate desiccated regolith layers that can be collected and used to develop additively manufactured structures.
[...] The Phase 1 winners are scheduled to be announced on August 13.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @01:08AM (3 children)
Everyone chill the fuck out about the Moon and Mars. If you want to fix some real problems, figure out how to build underwater cities. That will be fucking useful if/when we go to the fucking Moon, my apes. Horse before motherfucking cart.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Saturday June 19 2021, @07:40AM
That's nice. You would rather further destroy our oceanic ecosystem, than take our toys out where no one, and nothing cares about us making a mess. The whales will appreciate your concern.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @01:09PM
I agree more or less along your arguments. The only self sustaining habitat that has been built for humans was done by Matt Damon. Underwater habitat is an excellent test for remote habitats, and it would probably usher in a whole new vista for exploration. But it isn't sexy like Mars, so it is deemed better to set up a doomed habitat on Mars, because we don't know what the fuck we're doing yet, than it is to advance the technology while continuing robotic exploration of other bodies. It will be quite the feat when a human sets foot on Mars, but it will be like Apollo in that it will quickly become "been there, done that" for a number of more decades until we figure out what we're doing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @05:03PM
We already have underwater habitats, they are called ‘nuclear submarines’, and nobody likes living there