Thermal Enhanced Water Recovery on the Moon

Spatial activities and explorations are increasing day by day, and the consumption and need of energy is growing by the hour. Since Rocket fuel is based on LOX and LH2, water is considered very critical for the production of the fuel so water extraction from lunar regolith might be tempting in order to produce directly and on the spot rocket fuel so rocket will not have to go back to earth for a refill. A practice called thermal water recovery is one of the simplest methods that will aid us in the production of lunar water using a drill rod that has specific dimension. We have utilized a 3D model that consists parts for gas motion, pressure drop, mass balance, sublimation and fluid flow in porous media. Our calculations and assumptions rely on the use of Darcy’s Law, Ideal Gas Law and Heat Transfer by conduction. It was clear that the extraction of water from Lunar Regolith needs high temperature, which means that any heating below the 1000 W will lead to a negligible amount of vapor. Our study takes into account the fact that water even at high temperature might even solidify specially when there is a change in the pressure of the system due to the capture or the escape of vapor. We conclude that an extraction with one drill will be a power needing process. In addition that also all the properties are just about one type of regolith while in fact there are countless conditions where even the initial water content might change to 10%. For the future a detailed study about the pressure and pressure profile will help realize a better simulation with better constraints.