Molten lunar regolith heats up space colonization dreams

A study proposes that the Moon's dusty topsoil, also known as regolith, can produce thermal energy. The paper [PDF], which was written by researchers at the University of Waterloo, Canada, discusses the practical problems of settling or even building a base on the Moon. The key problem is getting necessary supplies to the Moon …

[jake]

Details.

"This method also doesn't require any extra materials from Earth, just a combustion chamber."

And just exactly how big does this combustion chamber have to be in order to get useful quantities of material out the back?

Do we have the technology to shift something that large out of Earth's gravity well and into the Moon's without denting it (or worse)?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Details.

I suppose you start off with a small one and use that to make enough material for a slightly bigger one and so on.

[jake]

Re: Details.

Speaking purely as a guy who made enough steel out of black sand to forge a 6" full tang hunting knife, I can see that being quite possible.

But feasible for production use? Maybe not so much. Next time, I'll just purchase a Buck 119 and be done with it.

[sitta_europea]

Re: Details.

"... Next time, I'll just purchase a Buck 119 ..."

D2, 420HC, or S35VN?

[jake]

Re: Details.

The way I use a 119, that would be 420HC, with Buck's proprietary hardening method.

I'm a knife user, not a collector or poser. My personal 119 has been my primary trail/camp/hunting knife since I bought it new in 1970ish. It's a trifle scratched and bruised after 50+ years (as is it's owner), but the blade itself has no nicks, breaks, chips or other issues. If I put a fresh edge on it, it'll keep me happy for a couple weeks in the brush with just a light hone to refresh it as needed. Can't ask for much more than that out of a knife.

[diodesign]

Re: Details.

Fair question. We've tightened up that sentence, too.

C.

[jake]

In other news:

"While the basic process of collecting and mining regolith won't be anything too different from mining on Earth, MacRobbie anticipates some hurdles. "Dealing with the zero gravity effects will be the largest challenge. Transporting and refining the material in zero gravity will take a lot of advanced engineering," he explained."

Perhaps someone should tell this expert, researcher Connor MacRobbie, that the moon has a trifle more than "zero" gravity.

[Bebu]

Re: In other news:

"Dealing with the zero gravity effects"

I suspect Connor MacRobbie unless he is a PR drone has been quoted out of context.

Otherwise one would have expected Armstrong and Aldrin to have propelled themselves back into space with their first bunny hop.

Doesn't matter where you are there is always gravity (curved space-time doesn't go away just because you're falling in it or maybe it does. ;)

[diodesign]

Re: In other news:

Ah, the guy was referring to the low gravity, not zero, slip of the tongue. We've added a note.

And also removed the references to thermite. We did say the lunar regolith was thermite-like, emphasis on like, but that's not a great comparison. Apologies!

C.

[m4r35n357]

Re: In other news:

Yes, some gravity is far better than none at all, if you need to have a human element involved, and a shallow potential well makes launches/landings, tethering etc. more practical than using Earth. As a sceptic regarding the purpose and likelihood of space (e.g. Mars) colonization I have to concede that a moon base together with an orbiting station is the most useful next step if we want to make "big stuff" in space. Of course I won't live to see any of this . . . !

[Alan J. Wylie]

So whose face are we going to carve into the surface of the moon?

[jake]

About fifteen years ago ...

... (or thereabouts) a company called "Moon Publicity" was going to sell advertising on the Moon itself, using a technology they called "Shadow Sculpting". These forever visible adverts were supposedly going to be sold for as little as $46,000 each.

I have no idea what happened to the company, I assume they folded after "suddenly" discovering that it would cost far more than $46,000 just to survey the regolith to be sculpted ... But not before the owners trousered a couple million from credulous investors, of course.

[Zimmer]

Re: About fifteen years ago ...

I wonder where they got that idea----?

The man who sold the moon - Robert A Heinlein circa 1950 ? I think I read it circa 1965....

[Mike 137]

Re: About fifteen years ago ...

Or Asimov's "Buy Jupiter" (1958)?

[TheMaskedMan]

"So whose face are we going to carve into the surface of the moon?"

Elon Musk, of course! And if we don't, he will!

[Jedit]

"So whose face are we going to carve into the surface of the moon?"

Nobody's. We're going to carve the Vulture logo into it, so it will be a real Regolith.

[Yukkuri]

But does it make a good portal surface? :)

[Apprentice Human]

Is that a type I see?

"...concerning in situ resource utilization (IRSU)"

Shouldn't that be "ISRU"?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Is that a type I see? Or even a typo?

I see the laws of the Internet are still valid anyway :-)

[Apprentice Human]

Re: Is that a type I see? Or even a typo?

Mea culpa. :-)

[Excellentsword]

Re: Is that a type I see?

20 lashes for me

[jake]

Re: Is that a type I see?

Now you're just bragging.

[Spherical Cow]

Re: Is that a type I see?

From the Moderatrix, presumably.

[Christoph]

"requires lots of power to keep the heat up"

Why not use a solar furnace? No clouds or atmosphere to get in the way.

You can only use it 2 weeks out of 4, but the power is free.

[John Brown (no body)]

"You can only use it 2 weeks out of 4, but the power is free."

Well, that's about as often as you can user solar cell power to, so only the issue of getting parabolic mirrors there intact or getting solar cells there intact. Bot could, of course, be made there to, but significant power is needed to bootstrap that process too :-)

[DanielsLateToTheParty]

"you can [use] solar cell power [too]"

A solar cell is ~20% efficient, more or less, whereas mirrors are ~99% efficient and don't degrade as rapidly in UV radiation. I know which my imaginary mission planner would choose.

[STOP_FORTH]

Big train sets

Build two circular tracks around North and South Poles.

Put a solar panel powered train on track. Train tows large mirrors aimed at polar furnaces.

There's no air to blow over the ginormous mirrors. Train only travels fairly slowly.

Make sure you get clockwise and widdershins right.

For extra kudos power train with solar still producing steam.

[Bebu]

Not the full bottle on logistics either

"Hauling materials to the Moon would be both slow and expensive as the trip takes roughly three days."

If I were constructing a lunar structure I would be sending a continuous stream of supply vessels to and from lunar orbit from from earth orbit rather like the Berlin airlift or WW2 Liberty ships.

Getting materials from earth into terrestrial orbit would be the hard part I imagine.

From lunar orbit to the moon's surface would have challenge too although I like the Lunar Space Elevator

If soft lunar landings weren't required a bloody big gun in earth orbit could do the job or a very long linear motor. ;)

These chaps actually get given real money to "research*" any number number of peculiar ideas of various levels of daftness.

_{* presumably at their local Rubbity. Watson and Crick apparently had their light bulb moment in a similar venue.}

[ian 22]

Re: Not the full bottle on logistics either

Musk is developing a solution to the lunar delivery problem. No doubt Amazon Prime will deliver your purchase for (almost) free.

[Spherical Cow]

Re: Not the full bottle on logistics either

Your bloody big gun in space is going to have issues with recoil. At least it will work once.

[ravenviz]

Exploration of ideas is good. I think we need the movie industry to explore it more, the only regolith extraction movie I can think of is Moon (which is excellent), which does not really go into the difficult details.