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In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) on the Moon: Moessbauer Spectroscopy as a Process Monitor for Oxygen ProductionEssential consumables like oxygen must to be produced from materials on the lunar surface to enable a sustained, long-term presence of humans on the Moon. The Outpost Precursor for ISRU and Modular Architecture (OPTIMA) field test on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, facilitated by the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, was designed to test the implementation of three hardware concepts to extract oxygen from the lunar regolith: Precursor ISRU Lunar Oxygen Testbed (PILOT) developed by Lockheed Martin in Littleton, CO; Regolith & Environmental Science and Oxygen & Lunar Volatiles Extraction (RESOLVE) developed at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL; and ROxygen developed at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. The three concepts differ in design, but all rely on the same general principle: hydrogen reduction of metal cations (primarily Fe2+) bonded to oxygen to metal (e.g., Fe0) with the production of water. The hydrogen source is residual hydrogen in the fuel tanks of lunar landers. Electrolysis of the water produces oxygen and hydrogen (which is recycled). We used the miniaturized M ssbauer spectrometer MIMOS II to quantify the yield of this process on the basis of the quantity of Fe0 produced. Iron M ssbauer spectroscopy identifies iron-bearing phases, determines iron oxidation states, and quantifies the distribution of iron between mineral phases and oxidation states. The oxygen yield can be calculated by quantitative measurements of the distribution of Fe among oxidation states in the regolith before and after hydrogen reduction. A M ssbauer spectrometer can also be used as a prospecting tool to select the optimum feedstock for the oxygen production plants (e.g., high total Fe content and easily reduced phases). As a demonstration, a MIMOS II backscatter spectrometer (SPESI, Germany) was mounted on the Cratos rover (NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH), which is one of several rover concepts designed to excavate and transfer regolith to the stationary hydrogen reduction plants. Spaceflight versions of the MIMOS II are part of the instrument payloads of NASA s Mars Exploration Rovers and still operating five years after landing on the surface of the planet. MIMOS II was also selected for Phobos-Grunt, a Russian sample return mission to the martian moon Phobos scheduled to launch in 2009, and ESA s ExoMars rover, an exobiology mission scheduled to launch in 2013. An advanced version of the instrument is currently under development. A new detector system with a higher energy resolution will not only reduce the necessary measurement time considerably, but also allow the simultaneous acquisition of an X-ray fluorescence spectrum to determine the elemental composition of samples.
Document ID
20090001315
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Morris, R.V.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Schroder, C.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Graff, T.G.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Sanders, G.B.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Lee, K.A.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Simon, T.M.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Larson, W.E.
(NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Quinn, J.W.
(NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Clark, L.D.
(Lockheed Martin Corp. Littleton, CO, United States)
Caruso, J.J.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2009
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Meeting Information
Meeting: Lunar Base Symposium
Location: Kaiserlautern
Country: Germany
Start Date: May 12, 2009
End Date: May 13, 2009
Sponsors: Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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