Muscatello_2008abstr

This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Published by The Mars Society.

LUNAR WATER RESOURCE DEMONSTRATION (LWRD)

EX LUNA, AQUA

Tony Muscatello

NASA KSC

LWRD (Lunar Water Recovery Device) is part of RESOLVE (Regolith and Environment Science & Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction). RESOLVE is an ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization) ground demonstration: a rover to explore a permanently shadowed crater at the south or north pole of the Moon. It is designed to drill core samples down to 1 meter, heat the core samples to 150C, analyze gases and capture water and/or hydrogen evolved, and use hydrogen reduction to extract oxygen from regolith. The demo will take place on Mauna Kea as an analog site for the Moon.

Relevance for Mars: RESOLVE could be used to find and characterize Mars ice as its drill is more capable than a scraper. Lunar ice can be electrolyzed into hydrogen and oxygen propellant and if sent to LEO for Mars missions, it could refill fuel tanks for the mission to Mars!