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Lunar Oxygen and Water Production Tech Tested
savuporo writes "NASA and its industry partners organized a two-week lunar in-situ resource utilization field test in Hawaii. The tested machines included a few different rovers and prototype plants for generating oxygen and water from lunar regolith.
Astrotoday has a picture gallery and a video report.
This follows on the heels of the recent ESA lunar robotics challenge event held on Tenerife, which tasked student teams to build a lunar robot that would be able to search for water ice in lunar polar craters."
Because if there's one place on Earth that resembles the surface of the moon, it's Hawaii.
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
Evil villains, bookmark this article! Your dream of a secret moonbase is about to come true!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
It was just a single click to view the photo gallery (2 clicks to get to individual photos) and you couldn't even bother to do that. If /. had membership cards, I'd ask for yours.
I thought the test area resembled the surface of the moon to a large degree.
www.purevolume.com/martyd
Not only are you demanding that someone click a link to RTFA, but you're expecting them to click once they're there. The audacity.
>I thought the test area resembled the surface of the moon to a large degree.
Based on what....one measly visit to the Moon and zero to Hawaii and suddenly you're an expert...? Rightttttt.....
No we found out it is really made of rock that's why we haven't been back since 1972
Volcanic ash would be a pretty good substitute for lunar dust. Sounds fine to me, and you could chill on the beach when the work day is done.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
If you demanded the hypothetical membership card of everyone who didn't RTFA, you'd be here alone.
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
I think transforming the Moon would be a really positive step for our species. Call it a test, call it our first expansionary mission. Also, if we can get a jump on terraform technology, and since it's only 2008, then we have about 40000 years before the galactic senate approaches us for our assistance in matters concerning the Orions. That's plenty of time to configure a few necessities for species survival, which are notably as follows:
1. Getting everyone on the planet to work together towards a common goal.
2. Stopping the real infidels (you know the ones from other planets creating dissent so they can throw us off our game)
3. Developing and improving faster methods of space travel. The time it takes to get to an enemy home world is the only hope in a quick victory for Mother Earth!
4. Socks. We need better socks. It's very cold in space.
5. Our energy weapon program is going smoothly. Keep it up. In 40000 years, our technology should definitely surpass that Death Star planetary destruction capability.
6. Rapid data transmission is going smoothly. Keep it up. By 42008, we should be sending and receiving entire clusters of units anywhere in the known universe, and beyond.
7. Deployed rover technologies are doing better than expected. We managed to get so much out of the mars mission that future missions with our new stealth invisibility technology should make Mother Earth a candidate for the Galactic Senate. By 42008, we should be looking at microscopic alteration technology weapons that can change our enemies into friends... which is just where we want them before we destroy them.
8. We need to stop letting these wars erupt on our soil. Perhaps better diplomacy? Perhaps a global government would be better? Personally a hive mind might be the way to go... that way we can quell the dissent with the brute force of the Great Mother. By 42008, a hive mentality could be intelligent to surpass anything feasible regarding survival in the universe, so that we can all start working on self actualization.
9. We need to continue unlocking human awareness -- it holds the key to a new path of glory... which would surpass the hive mind and create an exit.
END TRANSMISSION
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Because if there's one place on Earth that resembles the surface of the moon, it's Hawaii.
Well sure, parts of it do. It's a volcano you know, not all rainforests and beaches and sun-bronzed natives.
As to why they chose specifically Hawaii instead of some other location suitably representative, well, the answer is the rainforests, beaches, and sun-bronzed natives.
The enemies of Democracy are
It looks like "if" it happens to stumble upon water there would most likely be mud causing the holes in the wheels to fill up with gunk. Also I could see rocks and things getting stuck on this holes causing it to weigh more and change how it operates. http://www.astroday.net/Images/MKrovers/PISCES005.jpg
Yup! Scientists - particularly those in space science - long ago realized that Hawaii was a good political analog for anywhere really far away of volcanic origin, like other bodies in space.
The Brits snicker to this day about how they persuaded their government to build the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) out here, more or less guaranteeing themselves twice-a-year trips to Hawaii.
Of course, the last several years it's been easier than ever, with a president in office who just might believe you if you say "yes, sir, Hawaii is very much like the moon."
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
That depends how large of an enclosure you have. They're not trying to give the moon an atmosphere, this is strictly for an indoor moon base.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
The two oxygen/water producing setups tested out here weren't exactly of the "let's scale up and terraform!! w00t!!!" type...
In fact, they are more likely to be refined and *reduced* in size, to be able to go to the moon sometime in the next 10-15 years, and put out enough gas (stored under compression, or liquified) to support a crew of 4-6 humans for several months.
Nothing about giant pressure domes or atmosphere-building just yet... this stuff is way more practical than that.
-L
I doubt that the moon is totally cold all the way to the core, so could one not just drill down till you get into a level that is warm enough to have liquid water/oil/gas?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
How do they know where the water is from? Because of previous lab tests, regolith simulant sample checks before and after processing (using the same spectrometers that flew on the Mars Exploration Rovers, among others), and hopefully because of sound engineering from the outset.
I agree that nowhere on Earth is a great analog to Lunar climate/weather, but the point is to put these prototypes into a dusty, windy environment, drive the sample-delivering rovers around, etc. For this test in Hawaii they needed to put electric blankets on some components because of hard frosts at night... they'll change that system before flying it!
The point isn't photo-ops and vendor networking, although these things happen. The point is to do real science on Earth in preparation of doing real science on the moon and Mars.
I, however, was at the test to meet people and have my photo taken with cool equipment. That's the benefit of being a slave^d^w I mean an undergrad intern (and living in Hawaii).
-L