7 research outputs found
Conceptual Design and Viability Analysis of a Lunar ROXY Pilot Plant
No full textTehya Birch, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyAchim Seidel, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyEmanuele Monchieri, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMartin Altenburg, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyClara Offenhäusser, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyCarina Lieblein, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyGeorg Pöhle, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyChristian Redlich, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyUday Pal, Boston University, United StatesMarkus Schatz, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Ravensburg, GermanyElias Auer, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Ravensburg, GermanyMaximilian Propst, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Ravensburg, GermanySascha Maass, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Ravensburg, GermanyFabian Spraul, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Ravensburg, GermanyICES308: Advanced Technologies for In-Situ Resource
UtilizationThe 54th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Prague, Czechia, on 13 July 2025 through 17 July 2025.The reality of a future of human presence on the Moon
depends on the accessibility to crucial life-support
systems and elements. The most vital of all being the one
element every living creature on Earth cannot live without:
Oxygen. The demand for oxygen on the Moon can be met by
either routinely delivering tanks from Earth or
alternatively, producing it directly where it is needed
using ISRU technologies. Lunar regolith consists of metal
oxides and glasses and contains 45m% (mass percent) oxygen
on average. ROXY (Regolith to oxygen conversion), invented
and developed at Airbus, is one promising molten salt solid
oxide membrane electrolysis process, capable of reducing
all regolith constituents at one temperature and producing
100% pure oxygen in the meantime.
The commercial demand for oxygen on the Moon is expected to
grow exponentially in the coming years, not only for life
support but propellant production as well. A demand of tens
to hundreds of tons oxygen per year in the early 2030s is
currently estimated. In order to achieve this level of
production, intermediate development steps are necessary.
This paper considers a concept and viability analysis of a
Pilot ROXY facility, producing a minimum of 500 kg of
oxygen per year as a crucial step towards the
implementation of operational facilities.
The oxygen production should be maximized while minimising
the transportation cost of the facility itself, as well as
the mass of consumables and total facility power. A design
concept of the pilot plant is presented along with
quantitative performance figures, expressed as figures of
merit which characterize its viability
Oxygen from Regolith: The Mini-ROXY Lunar Demonstration Instrument and Mission
No full textAchim Seidel, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyEmanuele Monchieri, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMartin Altenburg, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMarkus Franz, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyTehya Birch, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyGeorg Pöhle, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyChristian Redlich, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyUday Pal, Boston University, United StatesICES308: Advanced Technologies for In-Situ Resource
UtilizationThe 54th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Prague, Czechia, on 13 July 2025 through 17 July 2025.The ROXY (Regolith to Oxygen and Metals Conversion) molten
salt electrolysis process has been specifically conceived
for oxygen and metal extraction from lunar regolith, and
meets all of the ISRU viability criteria. Mini-ROXY
incorporates all beneficial features of the ROXY process,
specifically porous metal cathodes, an optimized fluoride
salt electrolyte, and YSZ (yttria stabilized zirconia)
solid oxide membrane anodes, in a compact design with very
low resource requirements. Mini-ROXY is therefore ideally
suited for a small-scale lunar demonstration of the ROXY
process.
Preparations of a lunar demonstration mission with a
Mini-ROXY facility are underway, including a mission
concept and development of the Mini-ROXY lunar
demonstrator. We report on the development status and
recent progress of the design of the lunar demonstrator,
and the test status of a lab reactor and cartridges, in
which the electrochemical process will be tested on ground
UPREB: Universal Predictors of Regolith Behaviour – Concept and Overview
Get PDFTehya Birch, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyAchim Seidel, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyEmanuele Monchieri, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMarkus Franz, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMartin Altenburg, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMatthias Weber, Ulm University, GermanyVolker Schmidt, Ulm University, GermanyOrkun Furat, Ulm University, GermanyUrs Peuker, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyRalf Ditscherlein, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyLisa Ditscherlein, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyCarsten Schilde, TU Braunschweig, Institut für Partikeltechnik, GermanyTobias Lamping, TU Braunschweig, Institut für Partikeltechnik, GermanyGeorg Pöhle, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyChristian Redlich, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyICES510: Planetary and Spacecraft Dust Properties and
Mitigation TechnologiesThe 54th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Prague, Czechia, on 13 July 2025 through 17 July 2025.To develop successful missions involving In-situ Resource
Utilisation (ISRU), such as extraction of oxygen or metals
from regolith or use of regolith in a lunar construction,
fundamental knowledge gaps regarding the rheology of
regolith on the Moon must be closed. The complex mechanical
behaviour of the irregularly shaped and sharp-edged
regolith particles, which is particularly influenced by the
extreme lunar conditions, is currently not well understood.
To harness the full potential of lunar regolith, it is
essential to understand how it behaves during handling,
transportation, and processing.
With this in mind, we report on a new approach we have
developed to understand and predict the flow behaviour of
regolith on the Moon. Earth-based tests on regolith
simulants and initial numerical models predicting its
behaviour in different settings represent the starting
point, allowing us to identify flow-relevant
characteristics of regolith in Earth’s environment. In
parallel, a digital twin of lunar regolith will be
generated from 3D tomograms, chemical composition data and
observed physical interactions, with the intention to
perform virtual materials testing on this digital twin
using the developed numerical models. These activities lead
to flow and material tests using regolith simulants in a
parabolic flight campaign, where the harsh lunar conditions
are recreated with a dedicated testing facility, i.e., a
vacuum and plasma chamber operating at appropriate
temperatures and 1/6 g. Regolith rheology data collected in
this setting will be used to validate and improve the
numerical models and the digital twin. The validated
numerical models and digital twins are key to generalise
the methodologies developed on the ground and in the
parabolic flight to the behaviour of lunar regolith on the
Moon.
Future lunar missions will provide more experimental data
and allow further refinement and validation of the
predictive models
3D Tomographic Analysis of Regolith Simulants Enabling Multidimensional Particle-Discrete Characterization
Get PDFRalf Ditscherlein, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyLisa Ditscherlein, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyUrs Peuker, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyMatthias Weber, Ulm University, GermanyOrkun Furat, Ulm University, GermanyVolker Schmidt, Ulm University, GermanyTobias Lamping, TU Braunschweig, Institut für Partikeltechnik, GermanyCarsten Schilde, TU Braunschweig, Institut für Partikeltechnik, GermanyTehya Birch, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyAchim Seidel, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyEmanuele Monchieri, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMarkus Franz, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyGeorg Pöhle, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyChristian Redlich, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyICES510: Planetary and Spacecraft Dust Properties and
Mitigation TechnologiesThe 54th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Prague, Czechia, on 13 July 2025 through 17 July 2025.Lunar in-situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) has become a
rapidly growing field within the last decade. In this
context, the extraction of oxygen directly from lunar
regolith is one of the major challenges as starting point
for a successful exploration of the Moon and beyond. This
publication is part of a series of talks on Universal
Predictors of Regolith Behavior (UPREB) which address a
framework to develop a deeper understanding of the source
material, regolith, to successfully process it on the Moon.
The particulate material brought back to Earth by the lunar
missions can only be used for validation due to limited
quantities. To close the knowledge gap regarding the
behaviour of this material in the lunar environment,
simulants are used to try to reproduce real regolith in
terms of mineralogical composition, chemical composition
and particle size distribution. Most analyses, both of
simulants and real regolith, do not provide any information
on particle descriptors on a single-particle basis.
However, this kind of data is essential to correlate
particle descriptors multidimensionally, e.g., for particle
size and particle shape, which cannot be considered
independently of each other in mechanical processes like
sieving. Only particle-discrete data enables reliable
statistical models (e.g., digital twins of the regolith
particle systems) and simulations (e.g., flow behaviour of
the bulk material using Discrete Element Modelling - DEM).
In the following we will focus on the analyses of various
regolith simulants using 3D X-ray Microtomography. We show
special aspects of sample preparation, measurement, and
image post-processing, which are essential to extract valid
particle-discrete data. With the proposed workflow it is
possible to create a valid and statistically significant
data basis for subsequent virtual materials testing. This
will enable the reproduction of the fundamentally different
lunar conditions compared to the Earth's environment,
facilitating preparations for new missions
Poetic Meaning and Perspectives on Sport: Introducing Kinesiology Undergraduates to Mysticism
Get PDFMysticism in sport is a unique experience in which someone is engulfed by a feeling of existence both in real time and stopped time as well as entering a realm of unparalleled reality surrounded by mind and spirit (Higgs & Braswell, 2004). Despite the inexplicability of mystic experiences, poetry provides one means of deciphering them. The purpose of this article is to model how sport participants could be engaged in a process of self-reflective inquiry, then self-author scholarship that synthesizes and interprets the results of their self-reflection. During their 2021 Winter Quarter course on perspectives in physical activity, four undergraduate students were invited to create an original work of poetry on a sporting experience or set of experiences. Each author supplemented their poem with a reflection paragraph, which identified how their poems overcame limitations of “exact speech” to convey mystical qualities embedded in their sporting experience. Three styles of poems were produced: (a) acrostic, (b) haiku, and (c) free verse. Through the creative writing process, the four authors furthered their knowledge of winning and losing through sport, love and connection to sport, transcendent levels of play including the ‘flow state’, as well as furthering their understanding of mysticism and its unique relationship to personal experience. Analysis of the given poems revealed similarities in the emotions evoked, either as an athlete or as a spectator. Future directions would include exploration of other sport roles besides athletes and spectators, as well as the incorporation of additional artistic modalities besides poetry
Digital Modeling of Regolith Flowability Using Stochastic Modeling and Discrete Element Method – a Concept
Get PDFTobias Lamping, TU Braunschweig, Institut für Partikeltechnik, GermanyKonstantinos Giannis, TU Braunschweig, Institut für Partikeltechnik, GermanyCarsten Schilde, TU Braunschweig, Institut für Partikeltechnik, GermanyMatthias Weber, Ulm University, GermanyOrkun Furat, Ulm University, GermanyVolker Schmidt, Ulm University, GermanyTehya Birch, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyAchim Seidel, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyEmanuele Monchieri, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyMarkus Franz, Airbus Defence and Space, GermanyUrs Peuker, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyRalf Ditscherlein, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyLisa Ditscherlein, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Mechanical Process
Engineering and Mineral Processing, GermanyGeorg Pöhle, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyChristian Redlich, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials IFAM, GermanyICES510: Planetary and Spacecraft Dust Properties and
Mitigation TechnologiesThe 54th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in Prague, Czechia, on 13 July 2025 through 17 July 2025.For future extended lunar missions, the in-situ production
of oxygen from lunar regolith via resource utilization
(ISRU) is of critical importance. A comprehensive
understanding of regolith behavior during handling,
transport and processing is required to realize this
potential. Addressing fundamental gaps in the flow
characteristics of lunar regolith – particularly arising
from its angular particle morphology and complex
interparticle mechanics – is therefore essential. This
presentation, forming part of the Universal Predictors of
Regolith Behavior (UPREB) series, examines the combined use
of stochastic modeling and the discrete element method
(DEM) to elucidate regolith flowability. Initially,
particle geometries are statistically analyzed and
reconstructed from micro‐computed tomography data by means
of stochastic geometry models, thereby yielding
representative virtual particles. DEM simulations then
predict regolith behavior under lunar gravity and vacuum
conditions with minimal terrestrial experimentation. To
ensure predictive fidelity, the DEM framework is calibrated
against key experimental metrics, notably static angle of
repose and shear cell measurements. The methods presented
in this work form the basis of a virtual materials testing
approach to investigate the relationship between geometric
properties of regolith, environmental conditions and
effective properties
Sonochemical N-demethylation of Dextromethorphan – An Energy Consumption Comparison
Get PDFThe N-demethylation of alkaloids is a critical step in the synthesis of useful pharmaceutical agents such as Naltrexone, 1, and Naloxone, 2, used in the battle against drug dependency and opioid use disorder (OUD).2-4 Efforts to make this process more sustainable have been ongoing for a number of years, using a range of iron (0) catalysts, green solvents, and different energy sources to initiate reaction.9, 10, 11, 18 The use of a sonochemical, iron catalyzed methodology for the N-demethylation of the model alkaloid compound, Dextromethorphan, 4, is described herein. The sonochemical demethylation chemistry is comparable to other methods developed in the Singer and Scammells labs. However, when electrical energy consumption is examined, conventional stirring reveals itself as least demanding while liquid assisted grinding and sonochemical approaches were most demanding. Any future scale up of this chemistry using a touted “green and sustainable approach” should therefore consider all green chemistry parameters and metrics collectively.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
