ABSTRACT

This proposal focusses on a systematic/experimental study to use laser pulses for the ablation of Regolith’ material to extract oxygen. Within our consortium we will perform academic studies, estimations, simulation and a series of parametric experimental studies on the efficiency of pulsed laser ablation (Pulsed Laser Ablation, PLA) for oxygen extraction, as well as the safety feature of the Regolith dissociation process in terms of toxic by-products. Different simulants will be used (TUBS-M, TUBS-T,JSA-1, EAC-1, others) to perform the parametric study of PLA and to identify optimum processing conditions of oxygen production, process effectiveness and collection. Laser ablation is unaffected by gravity and doesn’t have the energy input requirements as Molten salt electrolysis (MSE) or Molten Regolith Electrolysis (MRE) techniques, being possible to be powered by solar panels easily in some cases.

Project features and unicity:

– parametric studies on the efficiency to use Pulsed Laser Ablation (PLA) for oxygen production/collection using different simulants, as the chemical composition and morphology of the Regolith can vary with harvesting Moon’s site and drilling depth. experiments on the safety parameters determinations of PLA process as the Regolith material can contain volatile elements (hydrogen, fluorine, etc.) which can lead to toxic and operational risky by-products. We expect the following benefits compared to other ISRO processes:

– revealing the advantages of PLA technique in processing the Regolith. The energy efficiency for the laser ablation process is superior to MSE or MRE techniques. The oxygen gas collection in vacuum is simplified. The ageing of used infrastructure material is simplified because no melting and sticking expected (material wall interaction), simpler oxygen separation and collection. Waste release and re-loading with material is simplified (permanent production). Robust system because the heating is delocalized from the extraction mechanism. The handling of powder material is in favour of the proposed method. The method is robust towards fine-tuning in respect to expectations on different landing sites. The waste product stays grain powder is of low impact on the production site modification.