Browsing by Author "Zacny, Kris"

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Aluminum extraction through biomining using Aspergillus foetidus and future implications for in-situ resource utilization
(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Bouey, Natasha; Seto, Emily; Gabrielli, Paolo; Zacny, Kris; Newbold, Timothy; Hubbard, Kevin; Bywaters, Kathryn
Biomining is the process of using microorganisms to extract metals from rocks and regolith. Minerals within the lunar regolith contain metallic resources for use in-situ such as iron and aluminum. Such metals are suitable for extraction via biomining. Biomining is an attractive method for making in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) of Lunar minerals possible. Biomining is currently being used in the terrestrial mining and mineral processing industries on Earth to extract Cu, Al, Fe, Au, and other platinum-group metals and rare earth elements and is considered a promising solution to obviate the use of toxic chemicals. Because the same procedures used on Earth could be implemented in space, biomining would be a straightforward process for extracting metals on the Moon. Regolith would be collected, introduced to microorganisms and nutrients, and allowed incubate to provide time for the microorganisms to extract metals/metal compounds into solution. Aspergillus foetidus, species of fungus, and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, an acidophilic and chemolithoautotrophic bacterium, are both organisms known for effective metal solubilization. Their bioleaching efficiencies of aluminum and iron from Lunar simulants were investigated. Cultures were grown in media containing Lunar Highland Simulant (LHS-1). Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used for Al and Fe analysis of culturing media over the duration of the experiments to determine extraction efficiencies. From these experiments, we quantify the production rates of Al and Fe from Lunar simulate using microorganisms. These data will feed into an analysis of the feasibility of employing biomining as a strategy for ISRU of Lunar materials.
Demonstration and Analysis of Thermal Management System (TMS) for Ice Extraction and Ice Collection for Lunar Ice Miners
(2024 International Conference on Environmnetal Systems, 2024-07-21) Hota, Sai Kiran; Truong, Quang; Lee, Kuan-Lin; Tarau, Calin; Zacny, Kris
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. in collaboration with Honeybee Robotics is developing a Thermal Management System (TMS) to facilitate ice extraction from icy-lunar regolith and efficient ice collection in a cold trap tank. The TMS has two main technologies 1. Thermal corer; and 2. Variable Conductance Heat Pipe (VCHP) based cold trap tank, along with other connecting technologies like rotary union and pumped fluid loop. The thermal corer is essentially an auger with minichannels for ice extraction through which heat transfer fluid circulates. A prototype thermal corer of length 17.3 cm and inner diameter 5 cm was fabricated with stainless steel. Performance testing of the thermal corer showed more than 60% ice extraction efficiency. Sublimation was the primary mode of ice extraction followed by liquid-vapor phase change. On the other hand, the VCHP cold trap tank was demonstrated to show ice collection by rejecting heat from incoming vapor to the cold plate simulating deep space heat rejection. During this mode, the VCHP was operating as a heat pipe. Additionally, the de-icing mode to melt ice from the heat pipe surface was demonstrated by activating the VCHP mode by blocking heat transfer to the cold plate. Finally, a system-level sizing analysis was undertaken by developing a mass-energy balance model with the following deductions: the rover weighing about 115 kg can extract 0.48 kg of ice with a total operational time of 4 hours. To achieve an ice-mining rate of 2.78 kg/h, about 24 thermal corers are required. In addition, sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the influence of system parameters like ice extraction efficiency, mining-processing site, etc.
Demonstration of Ice-Extraction and Ice-Collection System for Lunar Ice Miners
(2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2023-07-16) Lee, Kuan-Lin; Hota, Sai Kiran; Truong, Quang; Edalatpour, Mojtaba; Rokkam, Srujan; Zacny, Kris
Mining water-ice in the permanent shadow region of the moon opens opportunities for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) since it is a valuable resource for lunar exploration activities. To realize an efficient water-ice mining system, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. in collaboration with Honeybee Robotics, is developing an advanced thermal management under an ongoing SBIR Phase II funded by NASA. The thermal management system consists of two-principal components: 1. Thermal corer; and 2. Volatile cold trap tank. The thermal corer is an improved drill auger developed by Honeybee Robotics incorporating minichannels to facilitate regolith heating for ice-sublimation. Volatile cold trap tank is a chamber with variable conductance heat pipes (VCHP) integrated to a radiator panel. The VCHP's aid in effectively collecting ice. A prototype thermal corer, 17.3 cm long and with 5 cm internal diameter was 3D printed with stainless steel. Ice-extraction demonstration experiments were performed to determine the performance of the thermal corer with the heat transfer fluid flowing through the thermal corer at different temperatures for certain time. During the experiments, the concentration of the ice in the regolith was 5%. Likewise, a VCHP based cold trap tank was designed and fabricated. Currently, thermal characterization of the cold trap tank is being performed to determine the performance of the ice-collection by modulating the heat transfer modes of the VCHP from fully active condenser for 100% heat rejection to diode mode.
Thermal Management System for Lunar Ice Miners
(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) Lee, Kuan-Lin; Tarau, Calin; Truong, Quang; Rokkam, Srujan; Williams, Hunter; Bergman, Dean; Zacny, Kris
Million tons of ice water discovered by the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission is considered to be the most valuable resource on the moon. Extracting these water ice from Lunar regolith would require very high thermal energy input and inversely, capturing these water vapor in the near-vacuum environment also request significant cooling capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a dedicated thermal management system (TMS) for future Lunar Ice Mining Rovers that are powered by the radioisotope. Under an SBIR Phase I program, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc (ACT) in collaboration with Honeybee Robotics (HBR) is developing a thermal management system that can strategically use the waste heat of nuclear power sources to sublimate water vapor from icy-soil on the moon and use Lunar environment temperature as the heat sink to refreeze the sublimated vapor within the cold trap container. In such a way that the required electric energy for both ice extraction and vapor collection can be minimized with lower system mass and footprint. A detailed trade study was performed to design multiple thermal components of TMS including a waste heat-based thermal corer and a heat pipe radiator cold trap tank. A proof-of-concept prototype was developed and tested. A preliminary full-system that can potentially meet NASA�s mining goals was designed and the mining efficiency, system mass/volume, and power consumption (both electrical and thermal) were evaluated. This paper will report on the status and preliminary theoretical and experimental results of this work
Waste Heat-Based Thermal Corer for Lunar Ice Extraction
(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Lee, Kuan-Lin; Truong, Quang; Hota, Sai Kiran; Rokkam, Srujan; Zacny, Kris
The water ice accumulated in the Permanently Shadow Regions (PSR) of the Moon is considered to be the most valuable resource on the moon since it can be processed to generate Oxygen for life-supporting and converted into LH2 and LO2 for satellite and spacecraft refueling. It has been demonstrated that water can be extracted from icy-soil through in-situ heating and then collected by re-freezing the sublimated vapor within a cold trap container. Under this research, a thermal management system (TMS) for Lunar Ice Miners was developed, which consists of a thermal corer that can strategically use the waste heat of on-board nuclear power sources for ice extraction, and a cold trap tank that can use the lunar cold environment as the heat sink for ice collection. In order to investigate heat exchange between the corer and icy-regolith during the thermal extraction process, a two-dimensional transient model was developed and built-in ANSYS FLUENT environment as user-defined functions (UDF). The UDF provides the user-defined material properties of the icy-regolith as a function of temperature and porosity, including specific heat, thermal conductivity, saturation pressure, and mass fraction of ice. The model was validated against experimental water extraction of Mars regolith and Lunar regolith. Both experiment and simulation demonstrated a complete sublimation of 10% wt of icy-soil within ~ 9 minutes, using a thermal corer with 6 inches in length, 0.6 inches in inside diameter, and wall temperature of 57 ?. On-going work focuses on optimizing the dimension of the full-scale corer, using the developed model, to achieve the targeted water collection of 2.78 kg/hr.