Hydrogen Reduction of Lunar Regolith Simulants for Oxygen Production

Hegde, U.; Balasubramaniam, R.; Gökoğlu, Süleyman A.; Rogers, Kathleen; Reddington, Michael; Oryshchyn, Lara

doi:10.2514/6.2011-608

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…[8][9][10] Several of those components, such as the methanation reactor, reverse water gas shift reactor, and electrolyzer, are common to a Mars production plant. One option, therefore, to estimate the mass and power of the production plant was to use these component models where they exist.…”

Section: Propellant Production Plantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mars Surface Mobility Leading to Sustainable Exploration

Linne

Barsi

et al. 2012

50th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

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A Mars rocket-propelled hopper concept was evaluated for feasibility through analysis and experiments. The approach set forth in this paper is to combine the use of in-situ resources in a new Mars mobility concept that will greatly enhance the science return while providing the first opportunity towards reducing the risk of incorporating ISRU into the critical path for the highly coveted, but currently unaffordable, sample return mission. Experimental tests were performed on a high-pressure, self-throttling gaseous oxygen/methane propulsion system to simulate a two-burn-with-coast hop profile. Analysis of the trajectory, production plant requirements, and vehicle mass indicates that a small hopper vehicle could hop 2 km every 30 days with an initial mass of less than 60 kg. A larger vehicle can hop 15 km every 30 to 60 days with an initial mass of 300 to 430 kg.= conversion factor u = upstream h = heat transfer coefficient M = Mach number Greek m = mass π = flow coefficient mdot = mass flow rate γ = ratio of specific heats P = pressure µ = dynamic viscosity Pr = Prandtl number σ = heat transfer coefficient correction factor q" = heat flux R = gas constant r = radius of curvature T = temperature

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Section: Propellant Production Plantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mars Surface Mobility Leading to Sustainable Exploration

Linne

Barsi

et al. 2012

50th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

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“…An analytical model of the hydrogen reduction reactor 7 was used to determine the energy required to heat-up the regolith and chamber(s) for various starting conditions. While the emphasis of this model has been on high-fidelity predictions of the chemical reaction rates and oxygen yields, it also includes subroutines for calculation of reactor mass and the energy required to heat-up and maintain temperature.…”

Section: Energy Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Heat Recuperation in a Concentric Hydrogen Reduction Reactor

Linne

Kleinhenz

Hegde

2012

50th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

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Heat recuperation in an ISRU reactor system involves the recovery of heat from a reacted regolith batch by transferring this energy into a batch of fresh regolith. One concept for a hydrogen reduction reactor is a concentric chamber design where heat is transferred from the inner, reaction chamber into fresh regolith in the outer, recuperation chamber. This concept was tested and analyzed to define the overall benefit compared to a more traditional single chamber batch reactor. Data was gathered for heat-up and recuperation in the inner chamber alone, simulating a single chamber design, as well as recuperation into the outer chamber, simulating a dual chamber design. Experimental data was also used to improve two analytical models, with good agreement for temperature behavior during recuperation, calculated mass of the reactor concepts, and energy required during heat-up. The five tests, performed using JSC-1A regolith simulant, also explored the effectiveness of helium gas fluidization, hydrogen gas fluidization, and vibrational fluidization. Results indicate that higher hydrogen volumetric flow rates are required compared to helium for complete fluidization and mixing, and that vibrational fluidization may provide equivalent mixing while eliminating the need to flow large amounts of excess hydrogen. Analysis of the total energy required for heat-up and steady-state operations for a variety of conditions and assumptions shows that the dual-chamber concept requires the same or more energy than the single chamber concept. With no clear energy savings, the added mass and complexity of the dual-chamber makes it unlikely that this design concept will provide any added benefit to the overall ISRU oxygen production system.

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