There’s a lot of it?
If so, in a sane policy world, that would be even more impetus for depot-based refueling architectures. Unfortunately, that’s not the policy world in which we live, when it comes to space.
[Early evening update]
Speaking of depots, Jon Goff discusses the two papers he presented in Pasadena last week (which I still wish that I’d been able to attend).
There is also the prospect of very lean burn rocket engines. If memory serves a 1:20 LH2:LOX ratio still enable an ISP in excess of 300. Lunar LOX may still be cheaper on average than Lunar LH2 and the delta v required to get off the lunar surface is not that great.
Combine this with the thin film Solar being suggested for SPS (~4.3kW/kg) and some very interesting things are possible. It would be possible to get large quantities of raw material (mostly propellants initially) off the moon and even back to LEO (N2/O2 collecting aerobraking maneuver or high ISP solar powered engine?)
This is not a job for NASA – this now becomes commercial. What is the lowest cost development path? Who are the investors? Who are the developers? Is this within the capability of New Space yet? Does an amateur organization have any hope of playing? Or is this dinosaur territory?
The human race really has been most fortuitous in the extra terrestrial resources it has available. It will be rather sad if we can not make a go of it – we are running out of excuses.
Yep, much more than we thought before. Not as much as Mars but it is enough to do what we want to do.
Lunar LOX may still be cheaper on average than Lunar LH2 and the delta v required to get off the lunar surface is not that great.
If there is organic crud mixed with the water, then making hydrogen may be as simple as heating up the stuff and separating out the condensible gases. Making oxygen will still require something like electrolysis.
Now the question is: what about nitrogen and carbon?
If there is organic crud mixed with the water, then making hydrogen may be as simple as heating up the stuff and separating out the condensible gases. Making oxygen will still require something like electrolysis.
Heating up plain regolith with say a solar mirror will yield something like 1-2% volatiles, mostly oxygen, and perhaps keep one warm, even provide energy storage over the lunar night. So getting LOX should be practical, even away from the poles.
As you know the hydrogen maybe non trivial to extract – at those temperatures water (assuming the hydrogen is in the form of water) has structural properties not that dissimilar to many engineering materials, and may be difficult to dig up – it may also be well mixed with regolith. Heating to more workable temperatures presumably leads to sublimation. Yet sealing a pressure vessel over the ground seems difficult – maybe dig or drill out from underneath?
“If God wanted man to become a spacefaring species, He would have given man a moon.”
–Krafft Arnold Ehricke
If only Krafft had seen this one…
Happy days!
Now let’s get some ground truth from the polar regions (on site analysis or sample return). I want to know if 3He levels are higher there too (because diffusion of implanted helium out of the regolith would be suppressed at lower temperatures.)
Be interesting to see how this news affects the fortunes of the GLXP frontrunners (Odyssey Moon especially).