An Experimental Study on Low Pressure Frost Formation for Lunar Polar Water Capture

Date
2023-07-16
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems
Abstract

In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is a vital component of NASA's mission to the Moon and beyond, as the extraction of resources from the environment can reduce payload weight and the frequency of resupply missions. Since the discovery of water in the regolith of the permanently shadowed regions (PSR) of the Moon, its extraction and transport has become an area of increasing interest for NASA. One proposed method is heating icy regolith to free the water before desublimating and transporting it as ice in a tanker. However, little is known regarding the dynamics of frost growth at low pressures, and an understanding of the heat transfer process is required to properly size the heat exchanger for the tanker. To investigate this phenomenon, a cold plate was placed in a vacuum chamber with water vapor directed at its surface. The chamber pressure (300 and 500 Pa) and cold plate temperature (-18 to -5 °C) were kept below the triple point and varied throughout the experiment to examine their impact on frost layer heat transfer. As water flowed into the chamber and deposited on the cold plate surface, the heat flux and temperature were measured along with the frost layer thickness and/or mass. Density calculated at the conclusion of each test suggests the frost layer is denser than that of frost grown at atmospheric pressure. The results demonstrate unexpected density and heat transfer characteristics and require development of a new model of frost growth for lunar conditions.

Description
Beau Compton, NASA Glenn Research Center, USA
Timothy Krause, NASA Glenn Research Center, USA
Leah Struchen Deans, NASA Glenn Research Center, USA
ICES308: Advanced Technologies for In-Situ Resource Utilization
The 52nd International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Calgary, Canada, on 16 July 2023 through 20 July 2023.
Keywords
ISRU, frost growth, heat transfer, water capture, lunar ice
Citation