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Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers

For a sustainable human presence on the Moon, it is critical to develop technologies that could utilise the locally available resources (a.k.a. in situ resource utilisation or ISRU) for habitat construction. As the surface soil is one of the most widely available resources at the Moon, we have inves...

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Autores principales: Lim, Sungwoo, Bowen, James, Degli-Alessandrini, Giulia, Anand, Mahesh, Cowley, Aidan, Levin Prabhu, Vibha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7822870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33483557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81691-w
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author Lim, Sungwoo
Bowen, James
Degli-Alessandrini, Giulia
Anand, Mahesh
Cowley, Aidan
Levin Prabhu, Vibha
author_facet Lim, Sungwoo
Bowen, James
Degli-Alessandrini, Giulia
Anand, Mahesh
Cowley, Aidan
Levin Prabhu, Vibha
author_sort Lim, Sungwoo
collection PubMed
description For a sustainable human presence on the Moon, it is critical to develop technologies that could utilise the locally available resources (a.k.a. in situ resource utilisation or ISRU) for habitat construction. As the surface soil is one of the most widely available resources at the Moon, we have investigated the viability of microwave heating of a lunar soil simulant (JSC-1A). JSC-1A was thermally treated in a bespoke microwave apparatus using 2.45 GHz frequency, using five different microwave powers in the range of 250 W to 1000 W. The structural properties of the resulting products were analysed to determine whether their microstructures and mechanical strengths differ under different input powers; and whether input power plays a crucial role in triggering thermal runaway, for identifying the optimum power for developing a microwave-heating. Our key findings are: (i) the higher input powers (800 W and 1000 W) generate the highest yields and microstructures with the greatest mechanical strengths, at the shortest fabrication times, and (ii) thermal runaway improves the microwave heating efficiency despite the rapid increase in temperature, once it is triggered. Our findings are of key importance for developing a microwave-heating payload for future lunar ISRU demonstration missions, contributing towards 3D printing-based extra-terrestrial construction processes.
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spelling pubmed-78228702021-01-26 Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers Lim, Sungwoo Bowen, James Degli-Alessandrini, Giulia Anand, Mahesh Cowley, Aidan Levin Prabhu, Vibha Sci Rep Article For a sustainable human presence on the Moon, it is critical to develop technologies that could utilise the locally available resources (a.k.a. in situ resource utilisation or ISRU) for habitat construction. As the surface soil is one of the most widely available resources at the Moon, we have investigated the viability of microwave heating of a lunar soil simulant (JSC-1A). JSC-1A was thermally treated in a bespoke microwave apparatus using 2.45 GHz frequency, using five different microwave powers in the range of 250 W to 1000 W. The structural properties of the resulting products were analysed to determine whether their microstructures and mechanical strengths differ under different input powers; and whether input power plays a crucial role in triggering thermal runaway, for identifying the optimum power for developing a microwave-heating. Our key findings are: (i) the higher input powers (800 W and 1000 W) generate the highest yields and microstructures with the greatest mechanical strengths, at the shortest fabrication times, and (ii) thermal runaway improves the microwave heating efficiency despite the rapid increase in temperature, once it is triggered. Our findings are of key importance for developing a microwave-heating payload for future lunar ISRU demonstration missions, contributing towards 3D printing-based extra-terrestrial construction processes. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7822870/ /pubmed/33483557 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81691-w Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Lim, Sungwoo
Bowen, James
Degli-Alessandrini, Giulia
Anand, Mahesh
Cowley, Aidan
Levin Prabhu, Vibha
Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers
title Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers
title_full Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers
title_fullStr Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers
title_short Investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant JSC-1A at different input powers
title_sort investigating the microwave heating behaviour of lunar soil simulant jsc-1a at different input powers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7822870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33483557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81691-w
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