The proposed research aims to develop an advanced thermal mining technology that integrates engineered extraction, transportation, and condensation of water vapor at low pressure from lunar…

This federal grant award to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aims to develop an advanced thermal mining technology for extracting and collecting water vapor from lunar regolith. The $1,999,637.63 grant will fund research tasks related to measuring the thermophysical properties of icy regolith, characterizing vapor sublimation rates, transporting vapor using electrostatic fields, and recapturing ice in an engineered cold trap. The lab-scale prototype system is intended to demonstrate the ability to collect 1 kg of ice from lunar regolith simulant in approximately 11 hours, which could support NASA's in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) mission. This grant does not have a set-aside designation. UTEP, a Hispanic-serving institution, has extensive expertise in areas like materials science, environmental science, and space technologies, and frequently collaborates with federal agencies and defense contractors on research and development initiatives.

The proposed research aims to develop an advanced thermal mining technology that integrates engineered extraction, transportation, and condensation of water vapor at low pressure from lunar regolith. This will be realized through interlinked tasks of (a) measuring the thermophysical properties of ICY regolith, (b) characterizing vapor sublimation rates of capture tent and thermal drills, (c) transporting vapor in an electrostatic field, and (d) recapturing ICE in an engineered cold trap with active ICE deposition and delamination. The lab-scale system prototype aims to demonstrate a 1 KG ICE collection capacity from ICY regolith simulant in approximately 11 hours. Significant past efforts were dedicated to investigating the use of thermal mining approaches to separate water from ICY regolith. However, much work needs to be done to improve the energy conversion efficiencies associated with these technologies. Most of the technologies studied so far may not produce significant vapor pressure. Low-pressure water extraction will have an adverse impact on the ability to separate water from other volatiles and capture water without using large radiators or additional power. Thermal mining methods that do not include the pressure holding process will have the challenge of recapturing water ICE in a vacuum. Potential technologies for low-pressure water extraction from vapor subliming from thermal mining processes are yet to be explored. The proposed advanced thermal mining technology of 1 KG ICE collection capacity aims to serve an important role in NASA's isru mission by providing fundamental research, lab-scale prototype design and demonstrations, and a system-level scale-up analysis for lunar water collection.