Contaminant Robust Water Extraction from Lunar and Martian Soil for In Situ Resource Utilization - System Testing

摘要

Water has been identified on a number of planets and celestial bodies with the potential for future manned exploration, including Mars. Water is a crucial resource for any extended duration mission carrying humans. The ability to generate propellants and life support consumables from available water and other in-situ resources is vital to any mission success that does not solely rely on carrying full supplies from Earth. However, many of the water sources on extraterrestrial surfaces are assumed to be contaminated with compounds that are difficult to separate from water and are damaging to downstream processing equipment. A water clean-up system is key to the implementation of water extraction from planetary sources. An ionomer-membrane based Contaminant Robust In-situ Water Extractor (CRIWE) is currently being developed to clean water for in-situ processing. Various system architectures employing CRIWE technology for both Lunar and Martian environments in the context of water electrolysis were previously reported. A full-scale water extractor EDU based on a Martian architecture has since been developed. The EDU was tested at full-scale conditions. A contaminated water vapor stream was delivered to the EDU. The water vapor that transported across the membrane was collected as condensate and sent to a lab for analysis. Test results including extracted water purity and recovery rates are presented.