Demonstration of Ice-Extraction and Ice-Collection System for Lunar Ice Miners

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.