Minimizing volatile sublimation during excavation

Cislune proposes the construction of a percussive bucket drum mechanism with Ultrasonic Assisted Cuttingteeth and predictive software to minimize sublimation during lunar ice mining. The technology will enable the efficient collection of water ice from icy regolith. In this Phase II effort, Cislune will design and manufacture PERDEX (PERcussive Drum EXcavator) along with associated software. We will demonstrate PERDEXs capabilities compared to standard bucket drums in a Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) chamber to satisfy the requirements for reduced sublimation and heating during excavation. PERDEX is a self-contained bucket drum solution capable of excavating lunar regolith in various forms and strengths. Cislune has performed a variety of experiments and modeling in Phase I that will inform the design and approach of PERDEX. Cislune has been developing new technologies for managing and processing dry and icy lunar regolith. We will leverage technology from the Rover that Cislune developed during the NASA Break the Ice Lunar Challenge (BTILC) to efficiently and rapidly collect icy lunar regolith. The experiments and models from Phase I showed a significant reduction in sublimation for larger conglomerate chunks versus the fine material that will result from the scraping action of a standard bucket drum. The goal of PERDEX is to focus on generating the larger conglomerates while minimizing sublimation, energy input, and heating. The UAC teeth allow deeper penetration into the material and ensure the fracturing behavior operates in the weaker shear domain instead of the strong compressive domain of the material. Adapting the PERDEX technology has the potential to reduce energy consumption, and by extension energy input into the regolith, by up to 70%. And by retaining the heritage of the bucket drum architecture, the design allows scalable excavation in large quantities of dry overburden as well as the significantly tougher icy lunar regolith. Production of lunar water is essential to meet human needs for drinking water and oxygen as well as providing the potential for fuel that can supply both rocket engines and fuel cells. Current solutions of water ice extraction include standard bucket drums, lunar drills, and thermal ice mining.  While these methods have their advantages, they lack the scalability, efficiency, and simplicity of PERDEX as it pertains to lunar ice mining and bulk regolith mining.   Thermal ice mining is scalable but has significant efficiency issues. PERDEX will have an energy usage of less than 0.3MWh / mT of pure water.  Combined with efficient water extraction this is less than ⅓ the energy usage of Thermal Ice Mining. Current lunar drills are very capable of excavating to depth, but do not scale well dimensionally, similarly resulting in fine powders instead of the larger target conglomerates.  PERDEX offers compelling advantages in the scalability and versatility of bucket drums to various sizes and excavation rates as well. The objectices for Phase II are: Completion of a prototype percussion drum system  Capable of excavating 5% wt icy regolith at a rate of 7 kg/hr or 1% wt icy regolith at a rate of 35 kg/hr  Successful testing TVAC testing of the percussion drum compared to a standard bucket drum Successful in-situ modeling of heating and sublimation loss Lifetime testing in simulated icy regolith material By the end of this Phase II effort, Cislune will have generated the following deliverables: Kickoff Meeting: Cislune will organize and host a kickoff meeting consisting of the Cislune, NASA, UCF, McMurchie Engineering, and Honeybee Robotics to discuss and define the roles and responsibilities of each team, answer any questions and discuss the plan and goals of the project. Milestone Reports: Cislune will provide quarterly reports in the form of a System Requirements Review (SRR), System Definition Review (SDR), Task 2 Report, Task 3 Report, Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR), Test Readiness Review (TRR), testing report and a Final Report.   A CONOPS document and System Requirements Document (SRD).

The goal of this research is minimizing volatile sublimation during excavation that applies to producing propellants and other ISRU-derived products like plastics, breathable air, and more. This innovation directly maps to NASA STMD’s Strategic Framework thrusts of Go - Cryogenic Fluid Management, Land – Global access to support human missions, Live – ISRU. This innovation dramatically improves cryogenic propellant production of water and other volatiles that are critical for Moon and Mars exploration and utilization. ISRU mining, manufacturing, and space tourism all benefit from more efficient production of lunar ISRU sourced propellant, breathable air, plastics, potable water, and more. Volatiles are a critical product of lunar regolith excavation, in addition to metals, ceramics, solar cells, and fibers.

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