Power Requirements for the Construction and Operation of a Lunar Oxygen Plant
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 1
Abstract
Construction work and machines required to build lunar facilities including an oxygen plant were specified, and power requirements for the construction and operation of these facilities were estimated based on a proposed evolutional scenario. Individual components of lunar facilities such as habitat/laboratory modules, corridor modules, and connection/evacuation modules were designed, and specifications of lunar construction machines were determined. A realistic oxygen plant was also designed by referring to the experimental and analytical results of hydrogen reduction of ilmenite processes. The energy required for soil work is estimated to exceed the energy for a construction facility, and the covering of facilities with regolith is expected to be the most energy-consuming work. Estimated power demands for construction in the evolutional Phases 1, 2, and 3 were 75, 75, and 155 kW, whereas those for operation of the oxygen plant were 2.3, 31, and 761 kW, respectively.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Equipment World, Spec Guide. (2011). “Komatsu D21A-8EO.” 〈http://www.specguideonline.com/product/d21a-8eo〉 (Oct. 31, 2012).
Heiken, G. H., Vaniman, D. T., and French, B. M. (1991). Lunar sourcebook, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG). (1996). Declaration, Proc., 2nd Int. Lunar Workshop, ILEWG, Noordwijk, Netherlands.
Kanamori, H., Udagawa, S., Yoshida, T., Matsumoto, S., and Takagi, K. (1998). “Properties of lunar soil simulant manufactured in Japan.” Proc., Engineering, Construction, and Operation in Space 98, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Komatsu-kenki. (2011a). WA10-6, WA20-6 〈http://www.komatsu-kenki.co.jp/products/download/pdf/wheel_loader/WA10_20-6.pdf〉 (Oct. 31, 2012) (in Japanese).
Komatsu-kenki. (2011b). CD20R-2, 〈http://www.komatsu-kenki.co.jp/products/terrain_transport/CD20R-2.html#spec〉 (Oct. 31, 2012) (in Japanese).
McKay, M. F., McKay, D. S., and Duke, M. B., eds. (1992). “Space resources.” Special Report No. SP-509, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC.
Tadano. (2011). “Spec Sheet, No. GR-120N-2-00122/EX-01.” 〈http://www.tadano.co.jp/ihq/products/construction/roughter/pdf/GR-120N-2-00122EX-01.pdf〉 (Oct. 31, 2012).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 1 • January 2013
Pages: 160 - 168
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 14, 2011
Accepted: Nov 23, 2011
Published online: Nov 25, 2011
Published in print: Jan 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.