Utilization Of Lunar Regolith For Water Production And Rocket Propulsion On The Moon

In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is pivotal for sustainable space exploration. Lunar ISRU has primarily focused on the extraction of oxygen from regolith for breathing and propulsion and, more recently, on harnessing surface ice to produce liquid hydrogen and oxygen for propulsion. Lunar regolith simulant LHS-1 is currently used to develop thermal technologies for water extraction from icy regolith in the polar regions of the Moon. However, the development of these technologies is hindered by the lack of data on the thermophysical properties of LHS-1 at low temperatures and on the kinetics of water sublimation from icy regolith. In this dissertation, the specific heats and thermal diffusivities of LHS-1 and its finer version LHS-1D at low temperatures were determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and laser flash analysis, respectively, and the water sublimation kinetics from ice/regolith mixtures were measured using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Since water is a limited resource on the Moon, this dissertation also investigates the feasibility of using solid materials obtained from regolith for rocket propulsion. One approach is to use metal alloys, formed as a result of oxygen extraction from regolith, as fuels for combustion with liquid oxygen. A second approach involves the use of lunar sulfur either as oxidizer for the metal alloys or as fuel for combustion with oxygen. Thermodynamic calculations of rocket performance characteristics have shown the viability of both approaches. The feasibility of using aluminum/silicon alloys as fuel was confirmed in the experimental studies of their oxidation and combustion, which involved TGA, DSC, and laser ignition.