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In other words, 2,200 pounds of moon dirt would yield a dozen gallons of water. What would be the best water extraction technique?
by kqr2 16y ago
In other words, 2,200 pounds of moon dirt would yield a dozen gallons of water.
What would be the best water extraction technique?
- hugh3 16y agoHeat it to room temperature, squeeze it to a pressure of 1 atmosphere, and the ice should just melt and run out the bottom. Or just heat it until the water sublimates, then collect the vapour and cool back down to liquid/solid. I guess it depends on your constraints vis a vis time, energy and amount of equipment you want to bring to the moon. It doesn't sound too tricky, but the main part is that you have to bring the dirt "indoors".
- kqr2 16y agoIt looks like NASA is also experimenting with microwaving. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/07oct_microwave/ http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/07... Best of all, microwave extraction can be done on the spot. And it requires no excavation -- no heavy equipment for drilling into the hard-frozen lunar surface. At least 95 percent of the water added to the simulant was extracted (vaporized out of the soil) with 2 minutes of microwaving.