Experimental Demonstration of Lunar Water Extraction and Purification

Abstract

Sustainable space exploration requires the development of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies, which encompass all processes that utilize local resources to generate useful products for robotic and human exploration. Among the available resources, water is the most versatile and most needed in space exploration. Water can be directly used as consumable for astronauts or electrolyzed to hydrogen and oxygen, a very effective rocket propellant combination. However, in-situ water extraction is challenging and the required technologies are not yet fully developed. The LUWEX project focuses on the development and validation of a complete in-situ water process chain including water extraction, purification and quality monitoring. An integrated test setup was built to validate the operational capabilities of these technologies and also of the whole process chain. This setup delivers a relatively realistic environment analogue to the lunar surface and uses a lunar dust-ice simulant to provide proper validation conditions. The goal of the experiments is to demonstrate the extraction and purification of one liter of water. The project team is going to present the first experiment results of the LUWEX project which will enable future water extraction an purification for consumables and propellant production on the Moon.