Gabrielli, and 8 co-authors, reported May, 2015, that the project MultiRob 3D led by the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) and the Institute of Aircraft Design (IFB) envisage the establishment of Lunar industries for Earth and Space. On one hand, reasonable profit to provide for the venture’s self sufficiency is sought by providing resources scarce on Earth and abundant on the Moon. On the other hand, a Lunar take off industry may emerge from secondary applications of the Additive Layering Manufacturing (ALM) providing the Lunar plant with spare parts, yielding commercial space products. The present paper focuses on a current concept study for the setup of the Lunar plant.
Its generic architecture is broken down into the resource extraction chain, the factory, a power plant, and auxiliary systems typical to applications in space. Criteria to identify a suitable site for the Lunar plant are discussed. While some criteria address engineering constraints, other criteria consider the availability of raw materials for the planned Lunar industry. Following that, the options for gas extraction chains are indicated. A pyrolytic approach is outlined and the sizing of relevant subsystems discussed.
The authors concluded that the project MultiRob 3D addresses the potentials for the development of a Lunar industry. While a self-sustaining industry
is stipulated to evolve in the long run from an ALM machine installed to provide the initial mission’s spare parts, a highly valuable product has to assure the business in the beginning. In the project, ³He has been identified as an attractive commodity. Accordingly, interesting sites near the Apollo landing sites have been spotted following criteria arising from the resource’s abundance, and engineering considerations.
Lunar ³He is obtained from the regolith of the Maria and thus a process to extract the isotope on an industrial chain has to be found. In experiments, it has been shown that nearly 100% of the ³He contained in regolith can be extracted in thermal pyrolysis at temperatures below the glass or melting temperature. The gas depleted regolith can subsequently be fed into the ALM machine and processed into spare parts and other products.
The investigation of a suitable machine enabling the pyrolysis on an industrial chain is currently in progress at the Institute of Space Systems of the University of Stuttgart. The dynamics of rotary kilns have been studied. In the next step, the work is focused on the heat transfer in loose regolith. It is expected that a resulting model may enable a sustainable sizing of a Lunar rotary kiln, further allowing an estimation of the power supply and feasible yearly mass of ³He spoils. A complementary feasibility study covers a parametrization of blast furnaces. The sizing of the robots is being prepared at the Institute of Aircraft Design of the University of Stuttgart. Regolith based ALM is investigated at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics of the FH Aachen.
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