Space Zoo Patrol – Air & Water Resource Utilization (ISRU) 

By Dr. Jordan Holquist, Paragon Space Development Corporation

1. What is the name of the technology?

The generic term is In-situ (on site) Resource Utilization (ISRU). We call our technologies:

            ICICLE – ISRU Collector of Ice in a Cold Lunar Environment

IHOP – ISRU Hydrogen and Oxygen Production

2. What does it do?

ICICLE collects and simultaneously coarsely purifies water from any other technology that is mining water on the Moon. IHOP takes water that ICICLE has collected and further purifies it of any remaining contaminants, then splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. These two technologies are key parts of the process to make rocket propellant (for rockets to be able to return home to Earth or explore farther into the solar system) and breathable air (for astronauts to live on the Moon and survive traveling in space).

3. How does it work?

ICICLE works based on the process of distillation. Distillation is the process of heating a substance until it changes phase from a solid or liquid into a gas, then the hot gas is cooled down until some of it changes back to a liquid or solid. There are two ways that distillation can be used to purify water: 1) when an initial solid or liquid mixture is heated, it can be raised to a temperature where only one substance (e.g., water) turns into a gas, and other substances with higher phase change temperatures, remain as solids or liquids to be left behind, and 2) when the hot gas is cooled down, it can be cooled to a temperature where only one substance (e.g., water) turns back into a liquid or solid, and other substances remain as gases to be vented away. In ICICLE, we use what we call “freeze distillation” where water-ice is sublimated (goes directly from solid to gas) through heating and then deposited (goes directly from gas to solid) through cooling to selectively capture the water and reject the other substances that would contaminate the water. This is accomplished through temperature and pressure control within the water collection chamber of ICICLE. When water turns into a solid from a gas, it generates heat. ICICLE acts as a heat exchanger where a cold fluid running through tubes keeps the outside surface of the tubes cold enough to continue depositing water-ice. This coolant picks up the heat and takes it out to radiators on ICICLE that get rids of the heat to the extremely cold space environment outside of ICICLE.

IHOP has two major processes: water purification and water electrolysis. The water purification of IHOP is based on membrane filtration. In membrane filtration, a thin film of specially designed plastic material allows one substance to pass through it but prevents other substances from passing through it. Normally, we think of filters acting to remove solids from liquids or gasses, such as with the filters in a house removing dust from the air that recirculates in the house. In this case, we use a membrane that allows water vapor to pass through the membrane, but no other gases can pass through, allowing the water on the passed-through side to be even more pure than how ICICLE made it. Then, IHOP condenses the water (cooling it down to go from a gas to a liquid) so that it can be sent to the next step: the water electrolyzer.

A water electrolyzer is a technology that applies a lot of electrical energy to water such that it breaks the chemical bonds between hydrogen and oxygen in a water molecule. When those bonds are broken, the water splits them into two separate gases. In order for this process to work for a long period of time without damage to the materials in the electrolyzer, the water needs to be extremely pure – that’s why we have all of the other processes involved before the water gets to the electrolyzer. Once we have hydrogen and oxygen as separate gases, the two substances can either be sent to a different technology to cool and liquify them for use as rocket propellant, or they can be used as substances to help maintain a breathable environment for astronauts to live and work in.

4. How is it better than the older technology? 

There is no “older technology” for this, it hasn’t been done before on the Moon!

Humans purify water all over the world using similar technology to what is built into the ICICLE and IHOP systems. We also already make hydrogen and oxygen from electrolyzing water both in the International Space Station and on the Earth. However, these technologies need to function remotely, without failure, in an extreme environment on the Moon – with lower gravity, no air pressure, very hot and very cold temperatures – and they need to be lightweight, small, and use as little power as possible! The solutions that are built into ICICLE and IHOP to handle these conditions, as well as to process the contaminants that may be present with lunar water, are what make these technologies unique.

5. What classes should I take in school to work on this? 

In middle school and high school, depending on what is available, useful classes to take are math, science, chemistry, physics, engineering, and programming. In college, some majors that could be helpful are chemical, aerospace, materials, environmental, electrical, civil engineering, chemistry, physics, and computer science. Trades like machining and welding are also helpful for working on systems like these.

6. Pictures

7. Links

Paragon Space Development Corporation www.Paragonsdc.com