SPAMMM - Solar Powered Array for Melting Materials on the Moon

To establish a long-term human presence on the Moon, NASA will rely on the in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU, of native ores in its lunar metal production pipeline. Therefore, developing a practical, sustainable, and affordable method to extract useful metals from these native ores is essential for all future lunar manufacturing and construction efforts. This paper presents the Solar Powered Apparatus for Melting Materials on the Moon, or SPAMMM, as a metal extraction solution to be implemented on the Moon’s South Pole, one of the targeted Artemis landing sites. SPAMMM consists of a central “power tower” that contains gas injection valves, a depressurization valve, a distillation chamber, a precipitate chamber, and a furnace that separates metals from their initial ores via concentrated solar radiation from a foldable parabolic mirror. In order to leverage the uniquely shallow angle of incident light at the South Pole, this parabolic mirror is rotated about the furnace to track the weeks-long daylight. To maximize efficiency, the radius of the mirror’s path has been designed to be the mirror’s focal length. The paper is divided into the following sections: (1) Problem Statement, where the need for ISRU in the lunar metal production pipeline is explained; (2) Project Description, where the requirements, concept of operations, and design overview are detailed; (3) Ore Extraction, which discusses the power tower design and chemical processes behind extracting metal from specific lunar ores; (4) Rotating Parabolic Concentrator, which details the design, optical specifications, and thermal capabilities of the rotating parabolic mirror; (5) Verification Testing Program, which outlines the system and subsystem testing plan that will bring SPAMMM to a Technology Readiness Level of 5 and details any additional consideration for SPAMMM’s lunar implementation. If awarded funding through the 2023 NASA BIG Idea Challenge, future work will involve developing, designing, and validating every subsystem of SPAMMM in the relevant environment.