- 3887 - MOON - plans for a moonbase? Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' private spaceflight company, claims it has made major progress in developing a way to make solar panels using materials from the lunar surface.
------------------- 3887 - MOON - plans for a moonbase?
- The
breakthrough could have big implications for future lunar habitation by
providing a means of producing electricity-generating panels right there on the
moon instead of needing to transport equipment from Earth.
-
- The process
starts with making regolith simulants chemically and mineralogically equivalent
to lunar regolith (dust, dirt and gravel), before melting and moving the molten
regolith using a reactor. Iron, silicon and aluminum are extracted from the
regolith by passing an electric current through the molten material.
-
- The process
allows a team to then make solar panels, a protective glass to cover them and
wiring. Furthermore, the byproduct from the process is oxygen, which can be
used for life support or for propulsion for rockets.
-
- Blue Origin
said it has been making solar cells and transmission wires from regolith
simulant since 2021. Space agencies and
private firms are also looking at ways of making use of lunar regolith,
including making bricks for construction and producing oxygen.
-
- NASA aims
to set up a crewed outpost near the moon's south pole. The ingredients for that encampment, known as
Artemis Base Camp, are an unpressurized rover to transport suited astronauts
around the site; a pressurized rover to enable long-duration treks away from
the outpost; and the surface habitat itself, which will be capable of housing
four humans at a time.
-
- This home
demands a lot of infrastructure such as communications, power, radiation
shielding, waste disposal and storage space, too. All of these domicile
niceties are requirements for a sustained human presence on the moon that can
be revisited and built upon over the coming decades.
-
- The search
for desirable property on the moon is complicated. The Shackleton-de Gerlache Ridge area is
valuable real estate. While no location on the moon stays continuously
illuminated, three points on the rim remain collectively sunlit for more than
90% of the year. These points are surrounded by topographic depressions that
never receive sunlight, creating cold traps that can capture ices.
-
- Mission
planners are looking for spots that feature easy access to solar energy, good
communication linkage with Earth and modest slopes that allow access to nearby
permanently shadowed regions. These regions (PSRs) likely contain water ice
deposits. That resource could be extracted and processed into usable items,
such as oxygen, water and rocket propellant.
-
- PSRs are
areas near the north and south poles of the moon that never receive direct
sunlight and thus are exceedingly cold, ranging from about minus 415 degrees
Fahrenheit to minus 334 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
- There has
been stimulating work done recently on finding an address for Artemis Base
Camp, but researchers are trying to home in on sites that offer the best
combination of attributes.
-
- Water on
the moon is more common than we thought.
The lunar south pole is one of the most compelling places in the entire
solar system. The moon's south pole is
one of the most compelling places in the entire solar system.
-
- Scientists
compiled observations indicating the presence of water and other
"volatile" molecules from 10 remotely sensed datasets in 65 PSRs to
estimate the locations and mass of water ice deposits. Since 1998, four lunar orbiting spacecraft —
NASA's Lunar Prospector, LRO, India's Chandrayaan 1 and Japan's Kaguya — have
acquired data characterizing the hydrogen, hydroxyl and water distribution near
the lunar poles.
-
- NASA's
Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Spacecraft (LCROSS) impact experiment in
2009 provided direct evidence for cold-trapped volatiles in the southern lunar
crater Cabeus.
-
- The team
identified eight PSRs with the highest resource potential. They determined that
Faustini Crater, an impact feature that lies near the south pole of the moon,
shows the strongest indication of water ice based on the research team's
criteria.
-
- The group
also estimated that Haworth Crater at the lunar south pole has the greatest
tonnage of surface frost. Cabeus Crater, located about 62 miles from the south
pole, has the greatest estimated tonnage of subsurface hydrogen deposits.
-
- Ideal
exploration conditions for sustained surface activities involve relatively flat
surfaces, sunlight for power and line-of-sight communication with Earth and all
of these criteria need to be met within a practical distance of water ice
deposits.
-
- The
Shackleton-de Gerlache Ridge area is a prime target. This ridge is a highly illuminated region
that has been identified as a potential landing area for future crewed and
robotic landings by NASA, such as Artemis 3, the first crewed moon landing
mission of the agency's Artemis program. This touchdown, targeted for 2025 or
2026, will be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
-
- The de
Gerlache Crater rim is the most promising area when considering a landing site.
This site has access to two PSRs with high potential grades, has adequate
access to communication and nearby solar resources, and modest slopes
traversing from illuminated terrain to presumed water ice deposits.
-
February 23, 2023 MOON
- plans for a moonbase? 3887
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Comments appreciated and Pass it on to
whomever is interested. ---
--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
-- email feedback, corrections, request for
copies or Index of all reviews
--- to:
------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------
“Jim Detrick” -----------
---------------------
--- Saturday, February 25, 2023 ---------------------------
-
No comments:
Post a Comment