Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Regolith to Steel Powder, Oxygen & Water with Small Equipment
Project Description
This proposal covers processing of raw Martian regolith to both an enriched iron ore and liberated water, and also iron ore reduction and oxygen production, metal purification and steel powder making. Our proposal uses heat re-cycling to improve the energy efficiency of both regolith-to-ore enrichment and iron ore reduction. This heat re-cycling creates a bonus, the liberation of water (formerly bound to the regolith) as liquid water and a relatively low temperature water vapor. This water can be retrieved with the addition of a small condenser unit and a water storage tank/heat sink. Iron (and other transition metal) oxides are reduced using a reducing gas mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide inside two multi-use vessels (MUVs, in which heat recycling is also done). The reduction makes metals, mostly iron, but also exhausts water and carbon dioxide. This exhaust is re-cycled to a water/carbon dioxide splitter that produces the hydrogen and carbon monoxide reducing gases and also oxygen. The preferred water/carbon dioxide splitter is a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) from Ceramatec (maker of the SOEC for NASA's MOXIE), and Ceramatec has asked to be included in the proposal with a budget placeholder as a supplier. Metal purification and steel powder making is done using carbonyl metallurgy techniques developed by BASF with a possible variation to replace steel powder making with metal vapor deposition to shaped steel objects (as previously advocated for by William Jenkins). It should be emphasized that the entire manufacturing chain, and an extended chain than includes 3D metal powder printing to finished steel objects, (i) can be operated by robots (that can also carry out ore mining), and (ii) the robots and equipment needed to carry out this mining and manufacturing chain can be made such that their entire combined total mass is small enough to fit in Mars landing craft payloads well under 2500 kg.
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Anticipated Benefits
Martian iron ore mining through to steel-making, oxygen generation and water liberation, and then onto steel equipment fabrication, assembly and operation on Mars can start an expanding spiral of Martian activities for NASA. For example, it can produce more power generation equipment, such as re-orientable support structures for solar photovoltaic panels and steel solar parabolic dishes. Increasing electrical and thermal power generation on Mars is especially useful because almost all activities for human settlement of Mars need electrical and/or thermal power and all of these are limited (or given scope to expand) by the amount of such power that can be delivered. Steel-making and new power generation equipment can each facilitate an expansion of the capacity of the other, to create a coupled spiral of expansion of capacity. Expansions in the capacities of steel-making, steel fabrication and power generation, will also expand oxygen generation and water liberation capacities, but, also, expand capabilities in other areas; for example, panel- and scaffold-making for pressurized habitats, habitat plumbing and fixture manufacture, compressor, engine and spare part manufacture, and on. Steel-making, steel fabrication, power generation and robots can deliver Mars mission robustness by creating spare parts and extra parts that can be put to use to create settlement system reliability, self-repair and settlement growth.
The proposal's Martian iron ore processing could be applied to iron ore processing here on Earth. However, the economics of different methods of iron ore processing on Earth will be different from those on Mars, and it is unknown whether there is economic value for the process here on Earth. However, Martian steel-making uses zero carbon dioxide emissions iron oxide reduction. This realization has already caused an investigation into other methods for doing zero carbon dioxide emissions in iron oxide reduction here on Earth, that use renewable energy inputs, and this has caused the proposal's PI to draft patent applications for a new iron oxide reduction methods. More »
The proposal's Martian iron ore processing could be applied to iron ore processing here on Earth. However, the economics of different methods of iron ore processing on Earth will be different from those on Mars, and it is unknown whether there is economic value for the process here on Earth. However, Martian steel-making uses zero carbon dioxide emissions iron oxide reduction. This realization has already caused an investigation into other methods for doing zero carbon dioxide emissions in iron oxide reduction here on Earth, that use renewable energy inputs, and this has caused the proposal's PI to draft patent applications for a new iron oxide reduction methods. More »
Project Library
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rolf Miles Olsen | Lead Organization | Industry | West Bloomfield, Michigan |
Kennedy Space Center
(KSC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
| Michigan State University | Supporting Organization | Academia | East Lansing, Michigan |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Florida
-
Michigan
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