Materials Refining for Solar Array Production on the Moon
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20060004126 2019-08-29T21:13:16+00:00Z View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NASA Technical Reports Server NASA/TM—2005-214014 Materials Refining for Solar Array Production on the Moon Geoffrey A. Landis Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio December 2005 The NASA STI Program Office . in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to • CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. Collected the advancement of aeronautics and space papers from scientific and technical science. The NASA Scientific and Technical conferences, symposia, seminars, or other Information (STI) Program Office plays a key part meetings sponsored or cosponsored by in helping NASA maintain this important role. NASA. The NASA STI Program Office is operated by • SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, Langley Research Center, the Lead Center for technical, or historical information from NASA’s scientific and technical information. 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Landis Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio Prepared for the Space and Electric Power for Humanity, the Fourth International Symposium on Space Means for Power Utilities, and the Third Wireless Power Transmission Conference cosponsored by the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) and the Société des Electriciens et des Electroniciens (SEE) Montreal, Canada, August 24–28, 1997, and 29th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Electron Devices Society New Orleans, Louisiana, May 18–25, 2002 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center December 2005 This report contains preliminary findings, subject to revision as analysis proceeds. Available from NASA Center for Aerospace Information National Technical Information Service 7121 Standard Drive 5285 Port Royal Road Hanover, MD 21076 Springfield, VA 22100 Available electronically at http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov Refining Lunar Materials for Solar Array Production on the Moon Geoffrey A. Landis National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center Cleveland, Ohio 44135 Abstract Silicon, aluminum, and glass are the primary raw materials that will be required for production of solar arrays on the moon. A process sequence is proposed for producing these materials from lunar regolith, consisting of separating the required materials from lunar rock with fluorine. The fluorine is brought to the moon in the form of potassium fluoride, and is liberated from the salt by electrolysis in a eutectic salt melt. Tetrafluorosilane produced by this process is reduced to silicon by a plasma reduction stage; the fluorine salts are reduced to metals by reaction with metallic potassium. Fluorine is recovered from residual MgF and CaF2 by reaction with K2O. 1. Background Oxygen, a major component of rocket fuel and also critical for human life support, is a high priority resource to be produced on the moon. Many processes have been proposed to manufacture oxygen from lunar regolith. In the longer term, sustained habitation and industrialization of the moon will require the ability to produce other raw materials from lunar materials. It would be desirable to produce industrial materials as a co-product of oxygen production by reduction of lunar regolith. Production of solar arrays on the moon could have many uses for space industrialization (Refs. 1 to 4). This would allow increasing the power available for lunar facilities with a minimum of material required from the Earth. Increased power availability could be useful in ramping up the production of lunar resources (for example, oxygen) or for other industrial-scale operations, such as powering a mass- driver to deliver resources. Lunar production could also be useful for manufacture of solar arrays for other space applications, including satellites and solar-electric propulsion vehicles, since the ∆V of launching from the lunar surface is considerably less than that of launching from the surface of the Earth, and hence lunar-produced solar arrays could be lower in cost than Earth produced arrays. In the longer term, lunar produced solar arrays would be useful for the proposed production of solar power satellites to produce power in orbit for transmission to other users in space, or ultimately for transmission to the Earth's surface (Ref. 3). An alternate version of the orbital power concept is to produce the electricity by solar arrays directly on the lunar surface, using the moon itself as a large-area platform for beaming the power to the Earth (Refs. 4 to 5). These applications have been widely discussed elsewhere. The details of the process of lunar production of solar cells, on the other hand, have been less widely addressed. Earlier work on this subject is in references (Refs. 1 to 4 and 6). This paper will focus on developing workable production systems to reduce the lunar soil and produce the refined feedstock materials for making solar arrays from materials available on the lunar surface, including both the photovoltaic cell, and also the associated electrical connections and structural elements of the array. Table 1 shows the elements present in the lunar soil at abundances of 0.1 percent (by weight) or higher (Refs. 7 to 9). The processing sequence chosen should optimally recycle all reagents and waste products that are not available on the lunar surface. Since the lunar surface comprises oxides, any reduction process chosen to manufacture purified feedstock materials will simultaneously produce oxygen. NASA/TM—2005-214014 1 2. Solar Cell Production 2.1 Lunar Silicon Production Of the many materials used to make solar cells, only silicon is found in abundance on the moon. As shown in figure 1, after oxygen, silicon is the most abundant component of the lunar soil. Fortunately, silicon solar cells have the largest manufacturing base of any of the solar cell materials. For solar array production from lunar materials, the first requirement would be to demonstrate manufacture of relatively pure silicon from lunar resources. Since this is the major mass component of a solar cell, Si production would be the first step to showing solar cell manufacture is possible. In addition, silicon is the main component for glass. For solar cell operation, it is necessary that the silicon produce be of high purity. "Metallurgical grade" silicon is not acceptable. The allowable impurity level depends on the nature of the impurity atoms. Transition metals such as Fe and Cr serve as recombination centers in silicon, as well as nucleating growth defects, and reduce the efficiency if they are present in significant quantities (Ref. 10). Since iron is the highest mass fraction of the lunar soil after silicon and oxygen, it will be necessary that the silicon production process be adaptable to a method to refine and purify the silicon produced. Silicon can be used to produce several kinds of solar cells, including amorphous, polycrystalline, and conventional and unconventional single-crystal silicon cells. 2.1.1 Amorphous Silicon Amorphous silicon solar cells are normally produced by a plasma deposition process exactly like the one proposed below. This will require a small amount of hydrogen to make the electrical properties acceptable (in fact, the material is more accurately labeled amorphous silicon:hydrogen, or a-Si:H). This will also require a substrate or