Design of a Water Capturing System for Thermal Extraction of Water on the Moon

Abstract

In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) is gaining prominence in space exploration due to its potential to reduce the number of costly launches from Earth. Among these resources, water holds significant importance for future space endeavours, thanks to its multiple applications e.g. as potable water, for harvesting crops, and as fuel after electrolysis to hydrogen and oxygen. While prior research has concentrated predominantly on the extraction of water from regolith, there has been a notable gap in exploring methods for capturing and liquefying the extracted water vapour. Therefore, initial concepts are presented and three experiments are executed. This resulted in a design proposal for the LUWEX experiment at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). LUWEX is an acronym for Validation of Lunar Water Extraction and Purification Technologies for In-Situ Propellant and Consumables Production. In particular, the amount of water extracted is planned to be higher compared to other publicly available experiments.