Volatiles Loss from Water Bearing Regolith Simulant at Lunar EnvironmentsPermanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles contain water, ~5 wt% according to LCROSS. Interest in water for ISRU applications. Desire to 'ground truth' water using surface prospecting; e.g. Resource Prospector (RP) & RESOLVE. How to access subsurface water resources and accurately measure quantity; Excavation operations and exposure to lunar environment may affect the results A series a ground based dirty thermal vacuum tests are being conducted to better understand the subsurface sampling operations: Sample removal and transfer, Volatiles loss during sampling operations, Concept of operations, Instrumentation. This presentation covers: The capabilities of the VF-13 Thermal Vacuum Chamber (Tvac). The Resource Prospector TVAC hardware. The summary and results of 5 years of RP volatiles tests; 43 viable samples
Document ID
20180005235
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Presentation
Authors
Kleinhenz, Julie (NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Smith, Jim (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Roush, Ted (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Colaprete, Anthony (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)