Hydrogen Plasma-Enhanced Reduction for ISRU of Oxygen Natives (HYPERION)

Oxygen is an essential component of critical space technologies such as spacecraft propulsion, life support (e.g., water and breathable air), and power systems. NASA has therefore identified oxygen as a primary target for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), as extraterrestrial sourcing of oxygen would significantly reduce Earth launch mass requirements and greatly simplify mission planning for lunar missions and beyond. This would not only result in more effective missions but cheaper ones as well. This proposal has the ultimate objective of designing a demo reactor to extract oxygen from simulated lunar regolith at a rate suitable to meet NASA's needs, with the stretch goal of building the reactor and validating it. A testbed reactor will be built that leverages a microwave-powered hydrogen surface-wave plasma source to produce reactive chemical species that will strip the oxygen from lunar regolith simulant. Surface-wave plasmas are particularly effective at producing reactive species and will thus enhance the reactor's oxygen extraction capability compared to other extraction techniques. Previously developed physics-based models will be adapted and improved to model the oxygen extraction from lunar regolith using such hydrogen plasmas. Oxygen removal experiments utilizing the testbed reactor will be leveraged to validate the results of the improved models, using optical emission spectroscopy, Langmuir probes, radical probes, and X-ray diffraction. Finally, the validated physics-based models will be used to design and predict the performance of the oxygen extracting demo reactor to ensure it meets NASA's needs. The demo reactor will operate at significantly colder temperatures than other leading competing technologies whilst performing at a higher level. It will enable the future ISRU capability of routine oxygen extraction from extraterrestrial bodies which will dramatically decrease mission costs and complexity.

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