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Study of Electro-Cyclonic Filtration and Pneumatic Transfer of Lunar Regolith Simulants under 1/6-g and 1-g Gravity ConditionsNASA has built a prototype oxygen production plant to process the lunar regolith using the hydrogen reduction chemical process. This plant is known as "ROxygen - making oxygen from moon rocks". The ROxygen regolith transfer team has identified the flow and transfer characteristics of lunar regolith simulant to be a concern for lunar oxygen production efforts. It is important to ISRU lunar exploration efforts to develop hardware designs that can demonstrate the ability to flow and transfer a given mass of regolith simulant to a desired vertical height under lunar gravity conditions in order to introduce it into a reactor. We will present results obtained under both 1/6-g and 1-g gravity conditions for a system that can pneumatically convey 16.5 kg of lunar regolith simulant (NU-LHT-2M, Mauna Kea Tephra, and JSC-1A) from a flat-bottom supply hopper to a simulated ISRU reactor (dual-chambered receiving hopper) where the granular material is separated from the convey gas (air) using a series of cyclone separators, one of which is an electrically enhanced cyclone separator (electrocyclone). The results of our study include (1) the mass flow rate as a function of input air pressure for lunar regolith simulants that are conveyed pneumatically as a dusty gas in a vertical direction against gravity under lunar gravity conditions (for NU-LHT-2M and Mauna Kea Tephra), and under earth gravity conditions (for NU-LHT-2M, Mauna Kea Tephra and JSC-1A), and (2) the efficiency of the cyclone/electrocyclone filtration system in separating the convey gas (air) from the granular particulates as a function of particle size.
Document ID
20130011502
Acquisition Source
Kennedy Space Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
Mantovani, James G. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Townsend, Ivan I. (ASRC Aerospace Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Mueller, Robert P. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 27, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2009
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
KSC-2009-213
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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