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Thermal Energy for Lunar in Situ Resource Utilization: Technical Challenges and Technology Opportunities NASA/TM—2011-217114 AIAA–2011–704 Thermal Energy for Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization: Technical Challenges and Technology Opportunities Pierce E.C. Gordon The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan Anthony J. Colozza QinetiQ NA, Cleveland, Ohio Aloysius F. Hepp Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio Richard S. Heller Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts Robert Gustafson Orbital Technologies Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin Ted Stern DR Technologies, Inc., San Diego, California Takashi Nakamura Physical Sciences, Inc., Pleasanton, California October 2011 NASA STI Program . in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the • CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. Collected advancement of aeronautics and space science. The papers from scientific and technical NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) conferences, symposia, seminars, or other program plays a key part in helping NASA maintain meetings sponsored or cosponsored by NASA. this important role. • SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, The NASA STI Program operates under the auspices technical, or historical information from of the Agency Chief Information Officer. It collects, NASA programs, projects, and missions, often organizes, provides for archiving, and disseminates concerned with subjects having substantial NASA’s STI. The NASA STI program provides access public interest. to the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database and its public interface, the NASA Technical Reports • TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. English- Server, thus providing one of the largest collections language translations of foreign scientific and of aeronautical and space science STI in the world. technical material pertinent to NASA’s mission. Results are published in both non-NASA channels and by NASA in the NASA STI Report Series, which Specialized services also include creating custom includes the following report types: thesauri, building customized databases, organizing and publishing research results. • TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. Reports of completed research or a major significant phase For more information about the NASA STI of research that present the results of NASA program, see the following: programs and include extensive data or theoretical analysis. Includes compilations of significant • Access the NASA STI program home page at scientific and technical data and information http://www.sti.nasa.gov deemed to be of continuing reference value. NASA counterpart of peer-reviewed formal • E-mail your question via the Internet to help@ professional papers but has less stringent sti.nasa.gov limitations on manuscript length and extent of graphic presentations. • Fax your question to the NASA STI Help Desk at 443–757–5803 • TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM. Scientific and technical findings that are preliminary or • Telephone the NASA STI Help Desk at of specialized interest, e.g., quick release 443–757–5802 reports, working papers, and bibliographies that contain minimal annotation. Does not contain • Write to: extensive analysis. NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) 7115 Standard Drive • CONTRACTOR REPORT. Scientific and Hanover, MD 21076–1320 technical findings by NASA-sponsored contractors and grantees. NASA/TM—2011-217114 AIAA–2011–704 Thermal Energy for Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization: Technical Challenges and Technology Opportunities Pierce E.C. Gordon The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan Anthony J. Colozza QinetiQ NA, Cleveland, Ohio Aloysius F. Hepp Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio Richard S. Heller Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts Robert Gustafson Orbital Technologies Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin Ted Stern DR Technologies, Inc., San Diego, California Takashi Nakamura Physical Sciences, Inc., Pleasanton, California Prepared for the 49th Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Orlando, Florida, January 4–7, 2011 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center Cleveland, Ohio 44135 October 2011 Acknowledgments We acknowledge support of this effort by the ISRU project of NASA’s Exploration Technology Development and Demonstration program. We thank Dr. Kurt Sacksteder, Charlie Castle, Bob Macosko, Mike Piszczor, and Diane Linne at NASA Glenn and Dr. Mark O’Neill of Entech Solar, Eric Cummings of Cool Earth Solar Inc., and Harvey J. Gibson, Jr. of Edmund Optics for technical discussions. Support of Pierce Gordon by the NASA Science and Technology Institute (NSTI) program supported by the UNCF Special Programs Corporation is acknowledged. Richard Heller is grateful to NASA Glenn for support from the Graduate Student Researcher Program (GSRP). Trade names and trademarks are used in this report for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Level of Review: This material has been technically reviewed by technical management. Available from NASA Center for Aerospace Information National Technical Information Service 7115 Standard Drive 5301 Shawnee Road Hanover, MD 21076–1320 Alexandria, VA 22312 Available electronically at http://www.sti.nasa.gov Thermal Energy for Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization: Technical Challenges and Technology Opportunities Pierce E.C. Gordon The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Anthony J. Colozza QinetiQ NA Cleveland, Ohio 44135 Aloysius F. Hepp National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center Cleveland, Ohio 44135 Richard S. Heller Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Robert Gustafson Orbital Technologies Corporation Madison, Wisconsin 53717 Ted Stern DR Technologies, Inc. San Diego, California 92126 Takashi Nakamura Physical Sciences, Inc. Pleasanton, California 94588 Abstract include heat from nuclear or electric sources and solar concentrators. Options for collecting and transporting thermal Oxygen production from lunar raw materials is critical for energy to processing reactors for each source are examined. sustaining a manned lunar base but is very power intensive. Overall system requirements for each thermal source are Solar concentrators are a well-developed technology for compared; system limitations, such as maximum achievable harnessing the Sun’s energy to heat regolith to high temperature are discussed. temperatures (over 1375 K). The high temperature and potential material incompatibilities present numerous technical challenges. This study compares and contrasts different solar Nomenclature concentrator designs that have been developed, such as Aconc concentrator solar collector area Cassegrains, offset parabolas, compound parabolic Aspot spot size concentrators, and secondary concentrators. Differences between concentrators made from lenses and mirrors, and CR concentration ratio between rigid and flexible concentrators are also discussed. CRmax,CPC maximum concentration ratio of a dielectric Possible substrate elements for a rigid mirror concentrator are compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) selected and then compared, using the following (target) CR2Dmax,Th maximum concentration ratio of a line-based criteria: (low) coefficient of thermal expansion, (high) trough concentrator modulus of elasticity, and (low) density. Several potential CR3Dmax,Th maximum concentration ratio bounded by thermo- lunar locations for solar concentrators are compared; dynamic limit of solar concentration environmental and processing-related challenges related to dust and optical surfaces are addressed. This brief technology ISun intensity of Sun survey examines various sources of thermal energy that can be Lo initial length utilized for materials processing on the lunar surface. These NASA/TM—2011-217114 1 ∆L change in length be ignored. Radiative heat transfer, as expressed by the Stefan- n index of refraction of dielectric (lens) material Boltzmann Law (given in Eq. (1)) will determine the ultimate achievable material temperature within an illuminated spot. nsurr index of refraction of surroundings Pconc collected solar power 4 4 Pconc = σεAspot (Tspot − T∞ ) (1) Tspot temperature of spot T∞ ambient temperature Concentrator power, Pconc is determined by solar intensity, I , assumed to be the average solar intensity of 1353 W/m2, ∆T change in temperature Sun area of the concentrator and concentrator efficiency (Ref. 3) α coefficient of thermal expansion (ηconc) as given in Equation (2). For the lunar surface, ε (regolith) emissivity temperature of the surroundings T∞, is assumed to be 270 K. It should be noted that ambient temperature is wholly dependent θmax acceptance angle of CPC upon lunar surroundings, and can only be calculated through a θSun Sun’s divergent half-angle precise energy balance of the operational geography and Sun ηconc concentrator efficiency angle. Due to radiative losses of the heated material, as spot σ Stefan-Boltzmann constant (5.6704·10–8 Wm–2K–4) size increases there is a decrease in achievable steady state material temperature within the illuminated spot. Background Pconv = ηconc AconcISun (2) Solar concentrators use optical media, such as lenses and mirrors, to focus incident (solar) light. Concentrated light can This relationship between solar flux captured by the then be focused to produce thermal or electrical energy via concentrator and concentrated spot size is expressed as photovoltaic (PV) cells. Solar concentrator technologies date concentration ratio
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