Abstract
The University of Central Florida invention is a method to extract lunar water, drastically reducing the energy and complexity of lunar mining operations and helping to establish this industry. The process consists of robot mining of the regolith (loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock), transferring the mined material to a conveyer, and passing the soil through grinding and crushing stages. Included are mechanisms to sort the material into ice, metals, and other minerals, and final transport and cleanup.
Technical Details
The UCF invention is a system and methods for extracting water from lunar regolith. An example application can include:
- A regolith intake comprising a digging bucket that collects lunar regolith soil.
- A heater configured to heat the ice-regolith powder and vaporize any layer of ice. The powder contains ice grains that are about 10-100 microns.
- A pneumatic separator configured to receive the ice-regolith powder and pneumatically split the ice-regolith powder into streams of different-sized lithic fragments and ice particles. A gas dryer or cold plate may be positioned at the output of the pneumatic separator to remove water vapor from the gas.
Each split stream may include a magnetic separator that further separates the magnetic and paramagnetic lithic fragments from ice particles to discharge up to 80 percent of lithic fragments to slag.
Partnering Opportunity
The research team is seeking partners for licensing and/or research collaboration.
Benefit
Dramatically reduces the amount of power generation and energy transport equipment required in the lunar mining architectureCuts the cost of mining lunar water while making the process far simpler to set up and operateMarket Application
Mining water on the moon to support NASA missionsEnables commercial operations in space, such as boosting communications satellitesSupport Space Force activities
Brochure
