Lunar surface mining for automated acquisition of helium-3: Methods, processes, and equipment

In this paper, several techniques considered for mining and processing the regolith on the lunar surface are presented. These techniques have been proposed and evaluated based primarily on the following criteria: (1) mining operations should be relatively simple; (2) procedures of mineral processing should be few and relatively easy; (3) transferring tonnages of regolith on the Moon should be minimized; (4) operations outside the lunar base should be readily automated; (5) all equipment should be maintainable; and (6) economic benefit should be sufficient for commercial exploitation. The economic benefits are not addressed in this paper; however, the energy benefits have been estimated to be between 250 and 350 times the mining energy. A mobile mining scheme is proposed that meets most of the mining objectives. This concept uses a bucket-wheel excavator for excavating the regolith, several mechanical electrostatic separators for beneficiation of the regolith, a fast-moving fluidized bed reactor to heat the particles, and a palladium diffuser to separate H2 from the other solar wind gases. At the final stage of the miner, the regolith 'tailings' are deposited directly into the ditch behind the miner and cylinders of the valuable solar wind gases are transported to a central gas processing facility. During the production of He-3, large quantities of valuable H2, H2O, CO, CO2, and N2 are produced for utilization at the lunar base. For larger production of He-3 the utilization of multiple-miners is recommended rather than increasing their size. Multiple miners permit operations at more sites and provide redundancy in case of equipment failure

Potential of derived lunar volatiles for life support

The lunar regolith contains small quantities of solar wind implanted volatile compounds that have vital, basic uses for maintaining life support systems of lunar or space settlements. Recent proposals to utilize the helium-3 isotope (He-3) derived from the lunar regolith as a fuel for fusion reactors would result in the availability of large quantities of other lunar volatile compounds. The quantities obtained would provide the annual life support replacement requirements of 1150 to 23,000 inhabitants per ton of He-3 recovered, depending on the volatile compound. Utilization of the lunar volatile compounds for life support depends on the costs, in terms of materials and energy, associated with their extraction from the lunar regolith as compared to the delivery costs of these compounds from Earth resources. Considering today's conservative estimated transportation costs ($10,000 dollars per kilogram) and regolith mining costs ($5 dollars per ton), the life support replacement requirements could be more economically supplied by recovering the lunar volatile compounds than transporting these materials from Earth resources, even before He-3 will be utilized as a fusion fuel. In addition, availability of lunar volatile compounds could have a significant cost impact on maintaining the life support systems of the space station and a Mars base

Fusion energy from the Moon for the twenty-first century

It is shown in this paper that the D-He-3 fusion fuel cycle is not only credible from a physics standpoint, but that its breakeven and ignition characteristics could be developed on roughly the same time schedule as the DT cycle. It was also shown that the extremely low fraction of power in neutrons, the lack of significant radioactivity in the reactants, and the potential for very high conversion efficiencies, can result in definite advantages for the D-He-3 cycle with respect to DT fusion and fission reactors in the twenty-first century. More specifically, the D-He-3 cycle can accomplish the following: (1) eliminate the need for deep geologic waste burial facilities and the wastes can qualify for Class A, near-surface land burial; (2) allow 'inherently safe' reactors to be built that, under the worst conceivable accident, cannot cause a civilian fatality or result in a significant (greater than 100 mrem) exposure to a member of the public; (3) reduce the radiation damage levels to a point where no scheduled replacement of reactor structural components is required, i.e., full reactor lifetimes (approximately 30 FPY) can be credibly claimed; (4) increase the reliability and availability of fusion reactors compared to DT systems because of the greatly reduced radioactivity, the low neutron damage, and the elimination of T breeding; and (5) greatly reduce the capital costs of fusion power plants (compared to DT systems) by as much as 50 percent and present the potential for a significant reduction on the COE. The concepts presented in this paper tie together two of the most ambitious high-technology endeavors of the twentieth century: the development of controlled thermonuclear fusion for civilian power applications and the utilization of outer space for the benefit of mankind on Earth

Template-Stripped Multifunctional Wedge and Pyramid Arrays for Magnetic Nanofocusing and Optical Sensing

We present large-scale reproducible fabrication of multifunctional ultrasharp metallic structures on planar substrates with capabilities including magnetic field nanofocusing and plasmonic sensing. Objects with sharp tips such as wedges and pyramids made with noble metals have been extensively used for enhancing local electric fields via the lightning-rod effect or plasmonic nanofocusing. However, analogous nanofocusing of magnetic fields using sharp tips made with magnetic materials has not been widely realized. Reproducible fabrication of sharp tips with magnetic as well as noble metal layers on planar substrates can enable straightforward application of their material and shape-derived functionalities. We use a template-stripping method to produce plasmonic-shell-coated nickel wedge and pyramid arrays at the wafer-scale with tip radius of curvature close to 10 nm. We further explore the magnetic nanofocusing capabilities of these ultrasharp substrates, deriving analytical formulas and comparing the results with computer simulations. These structures exhibit nanoscale spatial control over the trapping of magnetic microbeads and nanoparticles in solution. Additionally, enhanced optical sensing of analytes by these plasmonic-shell-coated substrates is demonstrated using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. These methods can guide the design and fabrication of novel devices with applications including nanoparticle manipulation, biosensing, and magnetoplasmonics

Laser Spectroscopic Measurement of Helium Isotope Ratios

A sensitive laser spectroscopic method has been applied to the quantitative determination of the isotope ratio of helium at the level of 3He/4He = 10^-7 - 10^-5. The resonant absorption of 1083 nm laser light by the metastable 3He atoms in a discharge cell was measured with the frequency modulation saturation spectroscopy technique while the abundance of 4He was measured by a direct absorption technique. The results on three different samples extracted from the atmosphere and commercial helium gas were in good agreement with values obtained with mass spectrometry. The achieved 3-sigma detection limit of 3He in helium is 4 x 10^-9. This demonstration required a 200 micro-L STP sample of He. The sensitivity can be further improved, and the required sample size reduced, by several orders of magnitude with the addition of cavity enhanced spectroscopy

Telehealth Group Interactions in the Hospice Setting: Assessing Technical Quality Across Platforms

Objective: This study aims to examine the technical quality of videoconferencing used in hospice to engage caregivers as “virtual” members of interdisciplinary team meetings and their impressions of telehealth. Furthermore, it aims to compare the quality of plain old telephone service (POTS) and Web-based videoconferencing and provide recommendations for assessing video quality for telehealth group interactions. Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from an ongoing randomized clinical trial exploring Web-based videoconferencing and a completed prospective study of POTS-based videoconferencing in hospice. For the assessment of the technical quality, an observation form was used. Exit interviews with caregivers assessed impressions with the use of telehealth. A retrospective analysis of video-recorded team meetings was conducted rating attributes essential for the quality of videoconferencing (e.g., video artifacts, sharpness). Results: In total, 200 hospice team meetings were analyzed, including 114 video-recorded team meetings using Web-based videoconferencing and 86 meetings using POTS videophones. A direct comparison between the two modalities indicates the superiority of Web-based video in image quality but less so in audio quality. Transcripts of 19 caregiver interviews were analyzed. Caregivers found the use of videoconferencing to be a positive experience and a useful and essential tool to communicating with the hospice team. Conclusions: This study highlights the potential of telehealth to improve communication in hospice and the need for new tools that capture the quality of video-mediated communication among multiple stakeholders and strategies to improve the ongoing documentation of telehealth group sessions\u27 technical quality