Oxide decomposition system

Abstract

An oxide decomposition apparatus can include: a housing having a material inlet configured to receive oxide material into the housing, the oxide material including oxygen and an oxide base material; an oxide material holder in the housing and configured to hold the received oxide material; an oxide material heater configured to heat the oxide material held in the oxide material holder; an electron beam gun configured to bombard the heated oxide material with electrons in the housing so that the oxide material is decomposed into oxygen and the oxide base material; and an oxygen collector configured to collect the oxygen in the housing. A method of decomposing an oxide material containing oxygen and an oxide base material can include: heating the oxide material; bombarding the heated oxide material with electrons from an electron gun so that the heated oxide material is decomposed into oxygen and the oxide base material.

Description

Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTOXIDE DECOMPOSITION SYSTEM CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application claims the benefit of the filing date of United States Provisional Application No. 63 / 646,297, filed May 13, 2024 the contents of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.BACKGROUND

[0002] Oxygen production on a terrestrial object (e g., terrestrial planets and / or their moons) which lacks vapor phase oxygen may be an important enabler for further development of infrastructure and habitation of the terrestrial object. Methods of oxygen production from materials sourced from the terrestrial object may be limited due to various factors, such as lack of accessible power, operation in low pressure environments (e.g., about 10'12torr on Earth’s moon), limited mobility, and need for additional front and rear end systems to facilitate the method.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0003] The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the following description of particular implementations of the disclosure, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure. The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawing(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.

[0004] FIG. 1 - is a listing of bonding energy for various chemical bonds.

[0005] FIG. 2 - is a schematic illustration of a system for oxygen production.

[0006] FIGS. 2A and 2B - are schematic illustration of an oxide material holder of the system of FIG. 2 in a first position and a second position.

[0007] FIG. 3 - is a schematic illustration of a beam steering reflector [3],Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0008] FIG. 4 - is a graph of breakdown potential of various oxides as a function of material temperature.

[0009] FIG. 5 - is a schematic illustration of the soil composition of the lunar surface and interaction processes.

[0010] FIG. 6 - is a schematic illustration of the oxide composition of lunar regolith.

[0011] FIG. 7 - is an illustration of melt energy and melt time for metal production of 500-gram and 250-gram regolith batches.

[0012] FIG. 8 - is an illustration of the weight ratio of oxides in regolith

[0013] FIG. 9 - is an illustration of oxygen production rates by dissociation of oxides by IOmeter and 5-meter Cassegrain systems under thermal and spectral energy from solar and E-beam sources.

[0014] FIG. 10 - is an illustration of maximum penetration depths of energetic electrons [8],

[0015] FIG. 11 - is an illustration of a Monte Carlo analysis of 15 keV energetic electron penetration into fayalite.

[0016] FIG. 12 - is an illustration of the production potential of oxygen and metal by dissociation with E-beam spectral energy.

[0017] FIG. 13 - is an illustration of the production potential of oxygen and metal by dissociation with E-beam thermal energy.

[0018] FIG. 14 - is an illustration of the production of metal by dissociation with solar thermal, E-beam thermal, and E-beam spectral energy.

[0019] FIG. 15 - is an illustration of the production potential of metal by dissociation under thermal and spectral energy from solar and E-beam sources.

[0020] FIG. 16 - is an illustration of metal production rates under thermal and spectral energy from solar and E-beam sources in addition to preexisting metals.

[0021] FIG. 17 - is an illustration of oxygen collection and storage systems.

[0022] FIG. 18 - is an illustration of mean-free-path of rarefied medium under various pressure conditions.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0023] FIG. 19 - is an illustration of an oxygen collection chamber and storage system.

[0024] FIG. 20- is a functional block diagram of a computer, which is a machine for implementing implementations of the disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] In accordance with the present disclosure, an oxide decomposition apparatus may include: a housing having a material inlet configured to receive oxide material into the housing, the oxide material including oxygen and an oxide base material; an oxide material holder in the housing and configured to hold the received oxide material; an oxide material heater configured to heat the oxide material held in the oxide material holder; an electron beam gun configured to bombard the heated oxide material with electrons in the housing so that the oxide material is decomposed into oxygen and the oxide base material; and an oxygen collector configured to collect the oxygen.

[0026] The oxide material heater may include: a primary reflector, a secondary reflector spaced from the primary reflector, and the primary reflector may be configured to focus solar radiation from a star onto the secondary reflector, and the secondary reflector may be configured to concentrate the focused solar radiation onto a target plane which may be coplanar with the oxide material held in the oxide material holder.

[0027] The oxide decomposition apparatus may further include: a beam steering reflector that may be configured to intersect the concentrated solar radiation and guide the concentrated solar radiation to the target plane, wherein the oxide material heater may be configured to move corresponding to a movement of the star.

[0028] The oxide decomposition apparatus may further include: a movable oxide base material collector that may be configured to collect the oxide base material decomposed from the oxide material and move the collected oxide base material from the housing, wherein the oxide base material collector may include an oxide base material heater that may be configured to transfer heat to the collected oxide base material.

[0029] The oxygen collector may include a Bessel Tube having a turbo molecular pump and that may be configurable to attract the oxygen decomposed from the oxide material.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0030] The oxide material holder may be configured to hold the oxide material while the oxide material is heated by the oxide material heater and while the oxide material is bombarded with the electrons.

[0031] The material inlet may be connected to the oxide material holder.

[0032] The oxide base material may include at least one of and alkaline earth metal (Group 2), a transition metal (Groups 3-12), a triel (Group 13), and a tetrel (Group 14).

[0033] The oxide base material may include at least one of Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Si, and Ti.

[0034] In accordance with the present disclosure, a method of decomposing an oxide material including oxygen and an oxide base material may include: by a controller controlling, heating the oxide material, bombarding the heated oxide material with electrons from an electron gun so that the heated oxide material is decomposed into oxygen and the oxide base material, and collecting the oxygen decomposed from the oxide material.

[0035] The collecting may further include: accelerating the oxygen with a Bessel tube, and pumping the oxygen into a storage container.

[0036] The heating may further include: concentrating solar radiation from a star onto the oxide material.

[0037] The method may further include: collecting the oxide base material decomposed from the oxide material in an oxide base material collector; and moving the collected oxide base material to an oxide base material separation process.

[0038] The method may further include: transferring heat to the collected oxide base material with an oxide base material heater.

[0039] The method may further include: with the oxide base material separation process, holding the oxide base material in a crucible, heating the held oxide base material to a first temperature greater than or equal to a melting temperature of a first element contained in the oxide base material so that the first element melts, removing the melted first element from the crucible, and leaving a second element of the oxide base material having a melting temperature greater than the melting temperature of the first element remaining in the crucible.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0040] The method may further include: separating the oxide base material into pure constituent elements.

[0041] Chemical dissociations are often led by the methods of electrolysis, pyrolysis, etc. at certain conditions by imposing energy that exceeds chemical bonding energy. Most chemical chains have single or double or triple bonds with bonding energy from about 100 kilojoules per mol (kJ / mol) to about 840 kJ / mol as tabulated in FIG. 1 [1], If any energy applied exceeds the bonding energy of a chemical, the bonding structure of chemical can be broken down without regard to the dissociation methods. Accordingly, the key concerns of chemical dissociation are the energy and process requirements that are often dictated by the environmental sets of condition. The breakdown energy (e.g., dissociation energy) requirement of various chemical bonds are listed in FIG. 1. The dissociation of chemicals may be accomplished with a variety of energy sources, for example, thermal energy, photon energy, electrical energy, or electron energy.

[0042] As disclosed herein, an approach to decomposing regolith may include combining solar and electron beam (e-beam) energies to heat the regolith and remove oxygen from the regolith at temperatures below the melting points of oxides in the regolith. In this way, oxygen may be separated from the regolith (e.g., from oxides in the regolith) and remaining solids (e.g., metals) may fall towards the lunar surface by lunar gravity. The e-beam energy may break the chemical bonds of oxides thereby allowing oxygen atoms to be release as gas phase atoms (e g., to be collected) and metal atoms (e.g., reduced oxygen oxides and pure metals) to be left behind (e.g., where the metal atoms may be collected and / or relocated for further processing). With this approach, the energy of electron bombardment may heat the regolith at the same time as solar and / or thermal energy is used to heat the regolith which may speed the process (e.g., which may be paced by the heating rate based on the specific heat of the regolith). E-beam spectral energy transfer is nearly instantaneous. Hence, the regolith may be heated by e-beam emissions prior to the melting point(s) of element(s) remaining in the regolith. Further, after oxygen is removed the remaining solids may be processed (e.g., by induction heating or like separation technique) to separate constituent metals. The electron beam (E-beam) approach presented here is not limited to a single mineral, is not impacted by reduced gravity, may handle temperature variations, prefers vacuum, can be fully automated, may not require water, and may be isolated from dust. The power and cooling may be accommodated by solar based power solutions, (e.g., especiallyAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTnear the lunar poles). As will be demonstrated herein, the e-beam approach may be scaled up to lunar surface operations to produce tons of oxygen and metals per year.

[0043] Referring to FIG. 1, bonding energy of various chemical bonds is listed in energy per mol is listed on the second column (in kJ / mol) and the third column (in electron volt). Generally, in a thermal process, the specific heat of the material determines how much thermal energy is required to raise the temperature of material to a specific point. Accordingly, thermal process may be slow and may require a relatively large amount of energy (in comparison to other processes) to heat up materials to dissociate. Photodissociation may require photon energy higher than bonding energy and a relatively large flux density. However, in a photodissociation process, most photon energies are used to increase the wavelength dependent resonant mode energy of atoms and molecules even before dissociating chemicals. This can be a beneficial aspect of photon absorption. The solar spectrum carries low photon energy (e.g., about ~ 4 eV) which may not be sufficient for inducing photodissociation of chemical compounds. Plasma separation process can have a high energy demand because plasma can be sustained at or above the temperature of about 3000 Kelvin (K).

[0044] As disclosed herein, one process for dissociation of chemical compounds may be based on a combined use of the solar energy and electron energy (e.g., solar thermal energy, solar spectral energy, and electron beam (E-beam) energy). FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a system 100 for production of oxygen and metals by oxide dissociation. The magnitudes and proportional sizes of each component are not presented to scale.

[0045] Referring to FIG. 2, the system 100 can include a housing 50 having a material inlet 80 to receive oxide material containing oxygen and an oxide base material into the housing 50. An oxide material holder 86 can be inside the housing 50 and can be configured to hold the oxide material received into the housing 50 through the material inlet 80. For example, oxide material can be supplied to the material inlet 80 (e.g., dumped or poured into the inlet by an oxide collection device) and be moved from the material inlet 80 to the oxide material holder 86 through a conduit 81 by the force of gravity. Alternatively, liberated gases (e.g., oxygen) could be pressurized and blown into the conduit 81 to force the oxide material to move through the conduit 81 to the oxide material holder 86. An oxide material heater 60 can heat the target oxide material 82 held in the oxide material holder 86. For example, the oxide material heater 60 canAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTinclude induction heating coils, resistive heating coils, solar heaters, and the like. In an implementation, the oxide material heater 60 includes a Cassegrain optical system 61.

[0046] In the Cassegrain optical system 61, solar flux 20 may be concentrated by a primary reflector 61. The concentrated solar flux 65 may be fed by a secondary reflector 62 through an optical window 70 (e.g., quartz window) of the housing 50 to a target oxide material 82 (e.g., regolith, material containing one or more metal oxides, and the like) which may be fed from outside through a material inlet 80. The target oxide material 82 may be moved through the material inlet 80 to a designated focal plane where the concentrated solar flux 65 impinges. The Cassegrain optical system 61 may include photovoltaic panels 67 to collect solar energy which may be used to power electrical equipment of the system 100 (e.g., heaters, oxygen collectors, electron beam guns, and the like).

[0047] The material inlet 80 may include a conduit 81 extended into the housing 50 to an oxide material holder 86. The conduit 81 may be open (e.g., such as a channel or chute), closed (e.g., such as a pipe), or a combination such as having one or more open sections and one or more closed sections. The conduit 81 may be configured to have one or more different slopes along its length. For example, the conduit 81 can have a relaxed slope (e.g., less steep) at an end of the conduit 81 where the target oxide material 82 is to be heated by the oxide material heater 60. The end of the conduit 81 where the target oxide material 82 is to be heated may be configured to be open while the remainder of the conduit 81 is closed. The oxide material holder 86 can include a tray (e.g., cupped on two sides so as to form a shallow channel) configured to have a shallower slope than the conduit 81 so that the target oxide material 82 can be, at least temporarily, held (e.g., or paused for a predetermined heating time) in the heating zone 66 (e.g., where the oxide material heater 60 is configured to heat the target oxide material 82, such as in the focal plane where the concentrated solar flux 65 is configured to impinge). In an implementation, the oxide material holder 86 can be integral with the conduit 81.

[0048] The oxide material holder 86 can be a structure which holds the target oxide material 82 as it is heated in the focal plane and / or dissociated by electron beam bombardment. For example, the oxide material holder 86 can include an end of the conduit 81 (e.g., an open-ended pipe), a crucible, a tray, a plate, a lid, a channel (e.g., downward sloping channel), a screen, a pipe having a closable end (e.g., to retain the oxide material inside the end while the material is heated), andAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTthe like. The oxide material holder 86 can contain the target oxide material 82 as it is heated by the oxide material heater 60. The oxide material holder 86 can include retractable, movable (e.g., rotatable) structure at the end of the conduit 81.

[0049] Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, the oxide material holder 86 can include a tray cupped on two opposing sides to form a shallow channel. The tray can be rotated from a first position 87 where the target oxide material 82 is held (e.g., in the heating zone 66 while being heated) (e.g., see FIG. 2A) and a second position 89 where the target oxide material 82 is allowed to fall from the tray (e.g., by the gravitational pull) (e.g., see FIG. 2B) to be collected in a collection system 48 for further processing (e.g., collected in crucible 40), or discarded. A funnel 49 can be configured to help catch and / or guide the target oxide material 82 as it falls from the oxide material holder 86 to the collection system 48. The first position 87 can be from about level (e.g., an angle of nearly 0 degrees relative to the horizontal) to a shallow slope (e.g., about 2 to about 10 degrees inclined relative to the horizontal). The second position 89 can be from the shallow slope (e.g., about 2 to about 10 degrees inclined relative to the horizontal) to about vertical (e.g., about 90 degrees inclined relative to the horizontal). In an implementation, the first position 87 can be about less than about 5 degrees relative to the horizontal and the second position 89 can be greater than about 30 degrees relative to the horizontal. The oxide material holder 86 can be configured to rotate from the first position 87 to the second position 89 after at least one of a predetermined amount of time has expired since the target material was held by the oxide material holder 86, the target oxide material 82 has reached a predetermined temperature, a predetermined amount of oxygen has been liberated from the target oxide material 82 (e.g., such as determinable by an oxygen sensor configured to determine oxygen concentration in the housing 50, and / or near the target oxide material 82), the target oxide material 82 has lost a predetermined mass (e.g., such as determinable by a weight sensor configured to determine weight of the oxide material in the oxide material holder 86), and a predetermined amount of photons have been fired at the target oxide material 82 (e.g., as determinable by the power usage of the one or more electron beam guns 90).

[0050] The oxide material holder 86 can be made from a material having a melting point that is greater than or equal to the melting point of one or more metal oxides contained in the target oxide material 82. For example, the oxide material holder 86 can be made from a material having a melting point that is greater than or equal to about 1700 K, or greater than or equal to aboutAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT1800 K, or greater than or equal to about 1900 K, or greater than or equal to about 2000 K. In an implementation, the oxide material holder 86 can include at least one of titanium, vanadium, zirconium, tungsten, thorium, iron, iridium, tantalum, carbon, silicon, ruthenium, rhodium, rhenium, palladium, niobium, osmium, nickel, molybdenum, steel, and / or alloys thereof.

[0051] In an implementation, the oxide material heater 60 can be connected to the oxide material holder 86 so that the target oxide material 82 can be heated while it is held in the oxide material holder 86. For example, the oxide material holder 86 can include heating elements (e.g., induction heating coils, resistive heating coils, and the like) operationally connected thereto so that when held in the oxide material holder 86 the target oxide material 82 is in thermal communication with the oxide material heater 60 which can heat the target oxide material 82 (e.g., when the Cassegrain optical system 61 is not operating).

[0052] The system 100 can include one or more electron beam (E-beam) guns 90 which can be configured to bombard the target oxide material 82 with electron streams 92 after the target oxide material 82 has been heated by the oxide material heater 60. The one or more E-beam guns 90 can each be independently configured to sweep and / or flood the target oxide material 82. With a sweeping configured (e.g., side-to-side movement of the one or more E-beam gun 90 having a narrow angle beam while bombarding electrons at the target oxide material 82) the one or more E-beam can have a higher energy output in comparison to a flooding configuration (e.g., wide angle beam bombardment with or without movement of the one or more E-beam guns 90). In an implementation, one of the one or more E-beam guns 90 can be configured with a sweeping output and another of the one or more E-beam guns 90 can be configured with a flooding output. In an implementation, the one or more E-beam guns 90 can be spaced circumferentially around the oxide material holder 86 and / or the target oxide material 82 held in the oxide material holder 86. In an implementation, the one or more E-beam guns 90 can be positioned above and / or below the oxide material holder 86 and / or the target oxide material 82 held in the oxide material holder 86.

[0053] The electron streams 92 can cause photodissociation of target oxide material 82 to its constituent elements such as oxygen and an oxide base material. After dissociation, the liberated oxygen 98 can be in a gas phase as diatomic oxygen (O2) or monatomic oxygen (O) and can move in any direction within the housing 50. The dissociated oxygen can be collected by anAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCToxygen collector 94. Tn an implementation, with the system 100 is operated in a very low-pressure environment (e.g., on Earth’s moon under an ambient pressure of about 10'12torr) the liberated oxygen 98 may be pulled to an oxygen storage container 100 by the oxygen collector 94 which can use a harmonic field generator, such as a Bessel tube, and / or a turbo molecular pump. In an implementation, the housing 50 can be pressurized (e.g., ambient pressure inside the housing 50 increased) by the oxygen gas as it is liberated from the oxide material. In this case, the oxygen collector 94 can include a pump (e.g., connected to a gas outlet in a wall of the housing 50) which can pump the liberated oxygen to the oxygen storage container 100 from the housing 50 (e.g., when the ambient concentration of gas phase oxygen reaches a predetermined threshold concentration).

[0054] The oxygen storage container 100 can include any suitable device for storing pressurized gas. The oxygen storage container 100 can be constructed of various materials (e.g., reinforced resin, metal, and the like). The oxygen storage container 100 can be constructed in various shapes (e g., cube, rectangular cuboid, sphere, cylinder with or without hemispherical ends, and the like). The oxygen storage container 100 can be constructed with various structures (e.g., external reinforcement to increase hoop strength, internal reinforcement spanning the internal volume and tying opposite sides of the container together). The oxygen storage container 100 can be configured to withstand a pressure differential between the container contents and the exterior environmental pressure of greater than or equal to about 1000 pounds per square inch gauge (psig).

[0055] The oxide base material can include at least one of and alkaline earth metal (elements from Group 2 of the periodic table), a transition metal (elements from Groups 3-12 of the periodic table), a tri el (elements from Group 13 of the periodic table), and a Tetrel (elements from Group 14 of the periodic table). For example, the oxide base material can include at least one of aluminum (Al), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), silicon (Si), and titanium (Ti).

[0056] After dissociation, the liberated oxide base material can be in solid phase or in a liquid phase depending on the base material melting point and the temperature of the target oxide material 82 at dissociation. In low gravity environment, such as on Earth’s moon having a lunar gravitational pull which is about 17% of Earth’s gravity (about 0.17 G), the oxide base material can fall due to the lunar gravitational pull if no other forces are acting upon the oxide baseAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTmaterial or after a period of time that those forces are overcome by the lunar gravity. Eventually, contained within the housing 50, the oxide base material will fall to the floor of the housing 50 due to lunar gravity where it can be collected in a crucible 40 for transport from the housing 50 through a crucible outlet 46 for further processing. A funnel 49 having a chute can be used to guide falling oxide base material into the collection system 48, such as into a crucible 40. As a first crucible 40 is moved through the crucible outlet 46 in the housing 50 a second crucible 40 can be moved into the housing 50 through a crucible inlet 44 to be positioned to catch dissociated oxide base materials as they fall within the housing 50. In an implementation, the crucible 40 can include a crucible heater such as induction heating coils 41 which can transfer heat to the oxide base material (e.g., to heat or to maintain a temperature of the oxide base material).

[0057] The collected oxide base material can include a variety of different elemental metals as discussed above. The different elemental metals can be separated into pure metal portions through a heat separation process. For example, the crucible heater can heat the oxide base materials to a first temperature greater than or equal to a melting temperature of a first element contained in the oxide base material so that the first element melts. Once melted, the first element can be removed from the crucible 40 by a liquid removal process such as decanting, flowing from a liquid outlet (e.g., positioned in a bottom of the crucible 40). In this way, a second element of the oxide base material having a melting temperature greater than the melting temperature of the first element can remain in the crucible. In an implementation, the separation process can include dumping the contents of a first crucible 40 through a solids filter so as to retain the solids in a first crucible 40 and / or in the solids filter while allowing liquids to pass through the solids filter for collection in another container such as a second crucible 40. This process can be repeated and sequentially increasing melting points of the elemental materials contained in the oxide base material until the material remaining in the crucible 40 is the elemental material with the highest melting point and the lower melting point materials are separated into separate containers.

[0058] Control of the system 100 can be performed with a controller. The controller can be configured to perform control to introduce oxide material into the material inlet 80. The controller can be configured to perform control to operate the oxide material heater 60 to heat the target oxide material 82. For example, the controller can be configured to perform control toAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCToperate the oxide material heater 60 to heat the target oxide material 82 until the target oxide material 82 reaches a predetermined temperature as measured by a temperature sensor (e.g., noncontact temperature sensor such as a laser temperature sensor, an infrared temperature sensor, and the like)) configured to measure the temperature of the target oxide material 82. In an implementation, the controller can be configured to perform control to move the Cassegrain optical system to track a star (e.g., the sun) and / or to move a beam steering reflector 69 so that the focal plane 20 is coincident with the target oxide material 82 while it is heated.

[0059] The controller can be configured to perform control to operate the oxide material holder 86. For example, the controller can be configured to perform control to operate the oxide material holder 86 to move the oxide material holder 86 between the first position 87 and the second position 89. The controller can be configured to perform control to move the oxide material holder 86 to the first position 87 to catch and / or hold the target oxide material 82 as the target oxide material 82 is passed through the material inlet 80. The controller can be configured to perform control to hold the oxide material holder 86 in the first position 87 as the target oxide material 82 is heated by the oxide material heater 60. The controller can be configured to perform control to move the oxide material holder 86 to the second position 89 (e.g., from the first position 87, or a position between the first position 87 and the second position 89) after the target oxide material 82 is heated by the oxide material heater 60 to a predetermined temperature. The controller can be configured to perform control to hold the oxide material holder 86 in the first position 87 after the target oxide material 82 is heated to a predetermined temperature and as the target oxide material 82 is bombarded with electrons by the one or more E-beam guns 90. The controller can be configured to perform control to move the oxide material holder 86 in the second position 89 after the target oxide material 82 is heated to a predetermined temperature and as the target oxide material 82 is bombarded with electrons by the one or more E-beam guns 90 (e.g., so that the target oxide material is bombarded by electrons by the one or more E-beam guns 90 as the target oxide material 82 falls to from the oxide material holder 86).

[0060] The controller can be configured to perform control to operate the one or more E-beam guns so that the target oxide material 82 is bombarded by the electron stream 92 (e.g., as the target oxide material 82 is held in, and / or begins to fall from, the oxide material holder 86). The controller can be configured to perform control to measure the oxygen concentration of the ambient environment within the housing 50 and to operate the oxygen collector 94 and theAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCToxygen storage container 100 based on the oxygen concentration in the housing 50. The controller can be configured to perform control to control movement of the oxide base material collectors, such as crucibles 40, into and out of the housing 50 based on the amount of material collected in each collector (e.g., based on a weight of the collector or a volume of the oxide base material within the collector). The controller can be configured to perform control to manage collection and storage of solar power with the photovoltaic panels 67 and corresponding batteries. The controller can be configured to perform control to manage the feeding of stored power to the electrical components of the system 100. The controller can be configured to perform control to collect oxygen gas which is decomposed from the target oxide material 82. The controller can be configured to perform control to operate one or more oxygen collectors 94 (e.g., Bessel tube device(s) and / or turbo molecular pump(s)) to collect oxygen gas which is decomposed from the target oxide material 82. The controller can be configured to perform control to operate the oxygen storage container 100 (e.g., to open and / or close valves allowing oxygen gas into the oxygen storage container 100) to store oxygen gas which is decomposed from the target oxide material 82. The controller can be configured to perform control to operate the oxygen storage container 100 (e.g., to open and / or close valves allowing oxygen gas out of the oxygen storage container 100) to release oxygen gas stored in the oxygen storage container 100.

[0061] Referring to FIG. 3, the concentrated solar flux 65 may be steered and guided by a beam steering reflector 69 to a focal plane 20 which can be selected based on a desired orientation of components in the system 100. This beam steering reflector 69 can be configured to continuously guide the concentrated solar flux 65 onto a target material 82 at the focal plane 20 so that the target material 82 may be heated to a predetermined temperature without regard to the suntracking motion of the Cassegrain optical system 61.

[0062] Otherwise, when controlled thermal and spectral loadings are required, this beam steering reflector can direct the beamline for full or partial thermal and spectral loadings. The required thermal loading by solar energy is determined by the desired batch amount of raw material to be processed. As thermal loading per unit mass increases, its temperature rises. By increasing temperature, the dissociation energy requirement of chemical compounds can be reduced as shown in FIG. 4. The correlation of dissociation energy vs. temperature is shown for several oxides in FIG. 4. The dissociation energy of oxides is reduced with increasing temperature. TheAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTcolumn in the right-hand side of FIG. 4 shows the dissociation energy required for breaking down oxides at the temperature of about 1700 K. This result shows the effect of thermal loading for dissociation. When this result is compared to the binding energy of chemical chains tabulated in FIG. 1, it may be understood that the dissociation energy requirement is reduced with increasing temperature.

[0063] To produce oxygen and metals by breaking down oxides, the system shown in FIG. 2 includes solar thermal energy as a main prime power feeder, the E-beam thermal as the secondary power feeder, the E-beam spectral energy as the tertiary power, and the solar spectral (which carries about 4.5 eV on average) as a minute contributor to breakdown oxides.

[0064] The system disclosed herein can be applied to the dissociation of other chemicals with a proper combination of structural materials and arrangement of components.

[0065] The contents of lunar regolith may be mostly oxides (e.g., about ~60 wt. %) [4]) and the remainder being various metals. It may not be well known yet what chemical and / or structural forms of these metals exist within regolith. They may exist as nano-scale particles that are scattered within lunar regolith. FIG. 5 shows the soil contents of the lunar surface where lunar regolith interacts with solar wind (e.g., about 0.5 eV ~ about 10 keV, [5]), solar flare (e.g., about > 28 keV), micrometeoroids (e.g., about 200 eV ~ about 5 MeV), and galactic cosmic ray (GCR) (e.g., about > 500 MeV, [6]). The interaction end products of lunar oxides are known to be atomic oxygen and metals. One theory about how the Moon has water is based on the chemical combination process of atomic oxygen emitted from breakdown of oxides and protons carried by solar wind.

[0066] Referring to FIG. 6, the majority oxide component is silicon dioxide (SiO2: about 44 wt. %) and followed by aluminum oxide (AI2O3: about 17 wt. %), iron oxide (FeO: about 14 wt. %), calcium oxide (CaO: about 12 wt. %), magnesium oxide (MgO: about 9 wt. %), and titanium oxide (TiCh: 3 wt. % [7]). Besides oxygen, which may be highly demanded for lunar exploration, the metals dissociated from oxides may be valuable structural and functional materials for the development of lunar infrastructure, such as building habitats and onsite manufacturing facilities. Silicon can be used for onsite production of photovoltaic cells and electronic chips while aluminum, iron, magnesium, and titanium can be considered for structural and functional materials applications. Since these metals are processed by clean solar power andAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTE-beam power in an extreme vacuum condition, the purity of products would be very high. High purity metals can be really valuable for medical, scientific, and industrial applications if they are cheaply sorted out and obtained as bulk quantity.

[0067] FIG. 7 shows the fractions of oxygen and metals available from lunar regolith and the energy required to melt metals for the cases with batches of about 500 grams and about 250 grams regolith are respectively processed. The last two columns show the time to melt each metal when an about 10 kilowatt (kW) inductively heated crucible is used as a part of the batch processes. The production of oxygen and metals are implemented by using combined energy from solar thermal, solar spectral (e.g., about ~ 5 eV), E-beam thermal, and E-beam spectral (e g., about 60 keV).

[0068] As shown in FIG. 2, the metals may be collected into an inductively heated crucible 40 in a serial mode (e.g., batch process). The inductively heated crucible 40 may be heated by one or more induction heating coils 41 (e.g., on side and / or bottom surfaces of the crucible). When one crucible is filled, the next crucible 40 may be moved into the position to take metals while the filled one may be moved to a metal separation process. A metal separation process may include a process of heating the metals and removing molten metals when the melting point of each constituent metal is reached. When an estimation for oxygen production is made, it may rely on the exact amount of oxygen and metal contents from oxides as shown in FIG. 8. FIG. 8 shows the amount of oxygen and metal masses that are weighted with the composition of oxides.

[0069] Solar Thermal

[0070] Two sizes of Cassegrain reflector are considered for solar thermal: One has the aperture diameter of about 10 meters that can concentrate about 85 kW of power to a regolith batch of about 500 grams. Considering about 80% as the combined optical reflectivity of Cassegrain reflectors (primary, secondary, and steering optics together), the concentrated solar thermal power of about 85 kW can be used for system process. The other has an aperture diameter of about 5 meters which can concentrate about 21 kW of power to a batch of about 250 grams of regolith. Using a thermal balance under the assumption of about 2000 K heating temperature, which will dissociate most of oxides in regolith, the time required may be calculated from Equation 1.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0071] Equation 1: At = — - —Qs

[0072] In Equation 1, m is the batch amount of regolith in grams, CPthe specific heat of regolith, kJ / kgK, AZ the temperature, K, and Qsthe concentrated solar power. The time to heat the about 500 grams batch amount of regolith which has specific heat of about 2.9 kJ / (kg-K) to a temperature of about 2000 K level by the about 10-meter Cassegrain system (e.g., about 85 kW) is about 34 seconds. For the case of about 250 grams using a 5-meter Cassegrain system (e.g., about 21 kW), heating to 2000 K can take about 69 seconds. The oxide composition in regolith is about 60% and the rest might be composed of nano scale powder of various metals if these metals are the residues of billions of years of combined interactions with solar wind and flares, micrometeoroids, and GCR. Considering the oxygen content of oxides in weight average can be about 43.9%, the total extractable oxygen content can be about 26.34% of regolith. In such a case, the extractable oxygen amount out of about 500 grams of regolith is about 131.7 grams within about 34 seconds of time that heats up to dissociate oxides. For the about 5-meter system for processing about 250 grams of regolith, the oxygen production content is about 65.85 grams under the solar thermal of about 21 kW for about 69 seconds. With these two sizes of Cassegrain systems, the yearly productions of oxygen by solar thermal are about 122 tons / year for an about 10-meter aperture and about 30 tons / year for 5-meter aperture as listed on the 4thline of the 2ndcolumn of FIG. 9.

[0073] E-beam Spectral

[0074] The E-beam gun can be a unit that emits about 250 mA level current of electrons at about 60,000 electron volts (or about 60 kilo-electron Volts (keV)) energy. The E-beam spectral is based on a portion of energetic electrons (e.g., about 60 keV) coupling directly with and dissociating oxide molecules into oxygen and metal through scattered collisions until the kinetic energy of energetic electrons is diminished by scattering through primary, secondary, tertiary, and like interactions after the mean free path of energetic electrons (see the rightmost column of FIG. 10). FIG. 11 shows a Monte Carlo simulation of possible scattering behavior of energetic electrons by collisions. The penetration depth or mean-free-path of energetic electrons depends on electron energy and the density of materials as listed in FIG. 9. The number of electrons engaged in collisions with oxide molecules potentially contributes to direct split of oxides into oxygen and metal. The binding energy of oxides is no more than about 7 eV level as listed inAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTFIG. 1, so that if the initial E-beam energy is about 60 keV, a substantial level of energy is still carried by the secondary electrons after the primary collision. These secondary electrons can still proceed a follow-on collision with and break down oxide molecules to yield oxygen and metals. If the collision is the Compton scattering, the collision process populates a number of energetic electrons although their energy is lower than the energy of original colliding electron. These secondary energetic electrons undergo further collisions and numerate yielding of more oxygen and metals. Suppose that four E-beam guns are used to dissociate oxides. Each E-beam gun chosen for this application can have about 250 mA at about 60 keV (about 15 kW level). The number of electrons emitted by an about 60 keV E-beam gun can be Ne = 1.5625 x 1018electrons / s. For four guns, the electron emission rate can be about 6.25 x 1018electrons / s.Suppose that these electrons have one to one collision with oxide molecules. In order for these electrons (Ne = 6.25 x 1018) to collide with one (1) gram mole of oxide molecules, it can take at least about 26.76 hours (e.g., N.Av / Ne = 6.022xl023 / 6.25xl018 / s). If this collision process is fully realized within about 26.76 hours, there will be about 29.52 grams of oxygen to be yielded (see FIG. 8). In short, the oxygen yield per day with this configuration can be about 25.475 grams per day (g / day) (or about 9.663 kilograms per year (kg / yr)).

[0075] As shown in FIG. 4, the breakdown max becomes about 2.3 eV after the regolith is heated to about 1700 K by solar thermal. In this case, the electron beam of about 60 keV carries about 26,000 times more energy than the breakdown max, about 2.3 eV. Therefore, in combination with solar thermal (heated to about 1700 K), the oxygen yield per year is about 5.237 kg / day x 26,000 = 251,238 kg / yr = 251 tons / yr.

[0076] Note that this yield rate is merely made without proper consideration of collision efficiency of electrons. However, what appears to be about 251 tons / year may be substantial enough to justify the combined use of solar thermal and E-beam spectral together for oxygen production.

[0077] FIG. 12 summarizes the production capability of oxygen and metals by E-beam spectral rather than E-beam thermal when the batch of about 500 grams or about 250 grams regolith is heated at least to the temperature of about 1700 K. As shown in FIG. 4, the maximum breakdown potential, about 2.3 eV level, is used.

[0078] E-beam ThermalAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0079] The collisional energy often causes unstable resonant modes of atomic or molecular oscillation that dissipates the spectral or kinetic energy of electrons as a thermal mode. In this case when E-beam thermal is assumed to be prevailed, thermal contribution by the 4 units of E-beam (e.g., at about 15 kW / unit) is about 60 kW. If E-beam thermal is simply added to solar thermal under 10-meter Cassegrain, the production of about 131.7 grams of oxygen can take about 20 seconds. When two units of E-beam are added, it can take about 26 seconds. For 5-meter Cassegrain with four (4) units of E-beam added, it can take about 18 seconds to yield about 65.8 grams of oxygen while with two (2) units of E-beam added it can take about 29 seconds to yield about 65.8 grams of oxygen. These estimations are summarized in FIG. 13 for various cases of interactions for both 10-meter and 5-meter Cassegrain systems for solar thermal.

[0080] Solar spectral has almost invisible effects on dissociation of oxides because the photon energy carried by solar flux is very low around about 5 eV level in average, so that the penetration depth of solar photons is almost negligible. The 7thline in FIG. 9 shows the results of rough estimation for solar spectral.

[0081] Metal Production

[0082] Decomposition of oxides yields oxygen and metals. Accordingly, separation process of metals, while oxygen is collected, can be implemented for onsite production of important parts, devices, and structures in lieu of transporting them from Earth. The various metals, as shown in FIG. 6, may be collected into a mobile inductively heated crucible (see FIG. 2). This crucible is inductively heated to a predetermined temperature to melt a targeted metal species allowing it to be removed from the crucible (e.g., by a liquid / solid separation technique). Step-by-step following and setting the melting points of metals allows a molten form of each metal to be removed from crucible (e.g., flow from the crucible). In such a manner, the last metal remaining in the crucible may be chromium which has the highest melting point, at about 1907 °C. Based on the production rates determined by the solar thermal, the E-beam spectral, or the Solar thermal + E-beam thermal, when an about 10-kW induction crucible is used, the metal processing time for the 10-meter Cassegrain system can take about 20 seconds. For the 5-meter, it can take about 10 seconds. FIG. 14 lists the metal production rate, required energy to melt, and times. It lists somewhat detailed metal production rates when E-beam thermal is considered, and the energy and times required for sorting out the species of metal by inductive heating method.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTThe numbers in the pink and blue shaded areas indicate metal production rates when both E-beam thermal and spectral were added to the solar thermal process using the 10-meter and 5-meter Cassegrain systems. Simlar to FIG. 9 for oxygen production, FIG. 15 shows the metal production capability by solar thermal, E-beam thermal + solar thermal, or E-beam spectral. With the 10-meter Cassegrain system, the metal production rate by solar thermal can be about 155 tons / year. When E-beam of about 250 mA at about 60 keV is added to solar thermal, the production rate of metals becomes about 264 tons / year. The E-beam spectral alone adds about 321 tons / year in the rate. The added effect once when both E-beam spectral and thermal run together with solar thermal appears to be about585 tons / year. The increment by E-beam addition is an unexpected and phenomenal at about 377%. Even when only E-beam thermal is considered, the production rates are increased drastically by about 170% when 4 units of E-beam guns are added and by about 239% when 2 units of E-beam guns added.

[0083] As shown in FIG. 5, there are preexisting metal components in lunar regolith.Considering the combined processes of solar thermal (ST) and E-beam thermal / spectral for dissociation of lunar regolith, the preexisting metal components are pretty much stayed and collected with the portion of processed metals. When the collected metals are processed for separation, the dissociated and preexisting metals are melted down and separated according to their melting points within the inductively heated crucible. Accordingly, the number of metals processed from regolith is more than the amount listed above in FIG. 15. FIG. 16 shows the metal production rates by the preexisting metals and by the metals processed under the combination of solar thermal (ST) and E-beam thermal / spectral. By summing up the amount of metals appeared on the 3rdand 4thcolumns of FIG. 16, the metals harvestable from lunar regolith at the 5thcolumn of FIG. 16.

[0084] Collection and StorageAny method that operates the breakdown process of oxides in a sealed structure can allow relatively easy collection and storage of oxygen atoms or molecules. However, the role of regolith feeder from extreme vacuum (about -10’11torr) into a sealed chamber may require an additional process at the front end of the system. When the collection of oxygen is done in the sealed chamber, a sealed chamber may be open to load a new batch of regolith during the feeding process. This type of feeding cycle is repeated over until a storage amount of oxygen is met.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTAlthough as disclosed herein the batch sizes of about 500 grams or about 250 grams of regolith are mentioned, the process may include a continuous mode where the process is not stopped intermittently (such as the processing results according to FIG. 15). Therefore, the processing chamber is not completely sealed but exposed to lunar environment through the regolith feeding mechanism and metal collection operation as seen in FIG. 2. In this case, the process may be performed under extreme vacuum conditions (e.g., about less than or equal to 10'11torr). Under such a vacuum operation, the oxygen atoms, or molecules almost freely run with linear kinetic motion without colliding into other oxygen atoms until the population of oxygen atoms, or molecules, grows thereby increasing collision frequencies. Even when gaseous oxygen split from oxides is yielded in an open vacuum domain without a sealed reaction chamber by both solar thermal and E-beam, those separated oxygen atoms, or molecules, are forced away into all directions by the initial setting of their kinetic energy within the processing chamber as shown in FIG. 2. These free flying oxygen atoms, or molecules, may be collected and stored by a Bessel Tube which can be designed to collect volatile gases, such as is disclosed in US Patent Application No. 18 / 299,598 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety [9], FIG. 17 shows a module concept of Bessel Tube with a quadruple separator (A) and without a quadruple separator (B). The Bessel Tube cylindrical kicker is based on the cylindrical harmonic (CH) generator whereby a harmonic field creates a drift axis along which gaseous atoms and molecules are attracted and kicked into and undergo ballistic motion (e.g., along the drift axis). This type of concept may be effective in collision-less mediums such as rarefied gas (e.g., very low pressure or high vacuum conditions such as about 10'12torr). FIG. 19 shows the arrangement of Bessel Tubes over a shell structure to capture and collect atoms or molecules that fly in all directions in extremely high vacuum (~10-11torr). The behavior of gaseous medium in an extreme vacuum environment is well described by FIG. 18. The number density and the mean-free-path of atoms or molecules at the pressure range of about 8z108to about 8* 10-13torr level are in between about 109~ 104molecules / cm3and about 1 km ~ 105km, respectively. The strength of cylindrical harmonic field of Bessel Tube is determined on the basis of gaseous species and their number density to capture atoms and molecules.

[0085] Listing of Features:

[0086] The dissociation rate of oxides driven by the combination of solar thermal and E-beam thermal is exceedingly higher than solar thermal alone.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0087] E-beam thermal has strong dissociation capability.

[0088] E-beam spectral effectively increases the dissociation capability of chemicals much better than solar thermal process alone because of the exceedingly high energy of electron as compared to the bonding energy of chemical chains.

[0089] The combination of solar thermal and E-beam gives rise to three effects: 1. solar thermal, 2. E-beam thermal, and 3. E-beam spectral.

[0090] The system does not require any vacuum-sealed container to hold oxygen gas since the system has a Bessel tube to capture and store gaseous molecules using the cylindrical harmonic field of Bessel tube.

[0091] This concept is applicable to capture and store lunar volatiles, such as He-3, and protium.

[0092] A miniaturized system of this concept is applicable to finely controlled chemical processes, such as nano-volume and nano-second operations.

[0093] Commercial Potential:

[0094] Pharmaceutical process: fine chemical processes with extremely fine quantitative control, such as nano-volume and nano-second operations

[0095] Scientific equipment for selective and controlled chemical processes

[0096] E-beam Breakdown Spectroscopy (EBS)

[0097] Tunneling Electron Microscope (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) integration for the study of fine chemical dissociation image

[0098] Oxygen production on the Moon can be made either from breaking down of widely distributed oxides of regolith or from dissociating water molecules harvested from permanently shadowed regions (PSR) on lunar surface. Since water capture from PSR requires some extra equipment to harvest water ice, the breakdown of oxides seems to be easier and more plausible for oxygen production. There are several methods tabulated in FIG. 1 [1], such as hydrogen reduction of ilmenite (FeTiO ), CEE reduction of ilmenite and fluorination reduction with electrolysis, molten regolith electrolysis and molten salt electrolysis, vapor phase pyrolysis [2], carbothermal reduction, or plasma processing of regolith. Even though these oxygen productionAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTmethods are laboratory-proven technologies for terrestrial applications, lunar applications are much more complex and not effective as much as in Earth applications because these methods require additional front and rear ends systems to comply with the lunar environmental conditions which are subject to very high vacuum (e.g., about 10'12torr), lack of accessible power (only solar power available), limited mobility, etc. To effectively utilize the given set of lunar conditions, a newly invented oxygen production system is proposed.

[0099] The disclosed implementations can be implemented as an apparatus (a machine) that includes processing hardware configured, for example, by way of software executed by the processing hardware and / or by hardware logic circuitry, to perform the described features, functions, operations, processes, methods, steps, and / or benefits.

[0100] The disclosed implementation can include a computing apparatus, such as (in a nonlimiting example) any computer or computer processor, that includes processing hardware and / or software implemented on the processing hardware to transmit and receive (communicate (network) with other computing apparatuses), store and retrieve from computer readable storage media, process and / or output data. According to an aspect of an implementation, the described features, functions, operations, processes, methods, steps, and / or benefits can be implemented by and / or use processing hardware and / or software executed by processing hardware. For example, a computing apparatus as illustrated in Fig. 20 can include a central processing unit (CPU) or a computing processing system 1004 (e g., one or more processing devices (e g., chipset(s), including memory, etc.) that can process or execute instructions, namely software, program(s), and / or application(s), which can be stored in a memory 1006 and / or a computer readable storage media 1012 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, hard disk, solid state memory, and the like), transmission communication interface (e.g., network interface, wire / wireless data network interface) 1010, input device 1014 (e.g., mouse, keyboard, multi-touch display, audio microphone, sensor, and the like), and / or an output device 1002, for example, a display device (e.g., multi-touch display, audio speaker, visual display, and the like), a printing device, and which are coupled (directly or indirectly) to each other, for example, can be in communication among each other through one or more data communication buses 1008.

[0101] In an implementation, the computing apparatus can be the previously described controller for performing control of the system 100.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0102] In addition, an apparatus can include one or more apparatuses in computer network communication with each other or other apparatuses and the implementations relate to control and / or communication of aspects of the disclosed features, functions, operations, processes, methods, steps, and / or benefits, for example, data or information involving local area network (LAN) and / or Intranet based computing, cloud computing in case of Internet based computing, Internet of Things (loT) (network of physical objects - computer readable storage media (e.g., databases, knowledge bases), devices (e.g., appliances, cameras, mobile phones), vehicles, buildings, and other items, embedded with electronics, software, sensors that generate, collect, search (query), process, and / or analyze data, with network connectivity to exchange the data), online websites. In addition, a computer processor can refer to one or more computer processors in one or more apparatuses or any combinations of one or more computer processors and / or apparatuses. An aspect of an implementation relates to causing and / or configuring one or more apparatuses and / or computer processors to execute the described operations. The results produced can be output to an output device, for example, displayed on the display or by way of audio / sound. An apparatus or device refers to a physical machine that performs operations by way of electronics, mechanical processes, for example, electromechanical devices, sensors, a computer (physical computing hardware or machinery) that implement or execute instructions, for example, execute instructions by way of software, which is code executed by computing hardware including a programmable chip (chipset, computer processor, electronic component), and / or implement instructions by way of computing hardware (e.g., in circuitry, electronic components in integrated circuits, etc.) - collectively referred to as hardware processor(s), to achieve the functions or operations being described. The functions of embodiments described can be implemented in a type of apparatus that can execute instructions or code.

[0103] More particularly, programming or configuring or causing an apparatus or device, for example, a computer, to execute the described functions of implementation of the disclosure creates a new machine where in case of a computer a general-purpose computer in effect becomes a special purpose computer once it is programmed or configured or caused to perform particular functions of the implementations of the disclosure pursuant to instructions from program software. According to an aspect of an embodiment, configuring an apparatus, device, computer processor, refers to such apparatus, device or computer processor programmed or controlled by software to execute the described functions.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT

[0104] A program / software implementing the embodiments may be recorded on a computer-readable storage media, e.g., a non-transitory or persistent computer-readable storage medium. Examples of the non-transitory computer-readable media include a magnetic recording apparatus, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, and / or volatile and / or non-volatile semiconductor memory (for example, random access memory (RAM), ROM, etc.). Examples of the magnetic recording apparatus include a hard disk device (HDD), a flexible disk (FD), and a magnetic tape (MT). Examples of the optical disk include a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), DVD-Read-only memory (DVD-ROM), DVD-Random Access Memory (DVD-RAM), BD (Blue-ray Disk), a Compact Disc (CD) - Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), a CD-Recordable (CD-R) and / or CD-Rewritable (CD-RW). The program / software implementing the embodiments may be transmitted over a transmission communication path, e g., a wire and / or a wireless network implemented via hardware. An example of communication media via which the program / software may be sent includes, for example, a carrier- wave signal.References;[1] Lamboley, K., “System Architecture for Lunar Oxygen Production from Regolith Using a Model-Based System Engineering Approach”, Degree Project in Vehicle Engineering, 2ndCycle, 30 credits, Kth Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden 2022. https: / / www.diva-portal.Org / smash / get / diva2:1698342 / FULLTEXT01.pdf[2] Glavin, D.P. et al ., “Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith for Planetary Resource Exploration”, 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference, March 3-10, 2012. doi:10.1109 / AERO.2012.6187065[3] Schluter, L. and Cowley, A., “Review of Techniques for In-Situ Oxygen Extraction on the Moon”, Planetary and Space Science 181 (2020) 104753. https: / / doi.Org / 10.1016 / j.pss.2019.104753[4] Cremonese, G., P. Borin, A. Lucchetti, F. Marzari, and M. Bruno, “Micrometeoroids flux on the Moon”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 551, A27, 2013. doi: 10.1051 / 0004-6361 / 201220541[5] Farrel, W.M., Hurley, D.M., and Zimmerman, M.I., “Solar wind implantation into lunar regolith: Hydrogen retention in a surface with defects”, ICARUS, Vol. 255, pp.l 16-126, 2015. doi.org / 10.1016 / j.icarus.2014.09.014[6] Heiken, G.H., Vaniman, D.T., and French, B.M., Lunar Sourcebook, Chapter 3, page 48, Cambridge University Press, 1991.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT[7] McKay, D.S., Heiken, G.H., Basu, A., Blanford, G., Simon, S., Reedy, R., French, B.M., Papike, J., The lunar regolith. In: Heiken, G., Vaniman, D., French, B.M. (Eds.), Lunar Sourcebook. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Massachussetts, pp. 285-356, 1991.[8] CRC Handbook of Radioactive Nuclides, edited by Y. Wang, (Chemical Rubber Company, Ohio, 1969).[9] Choi, S.H., Choi, H.S., Moses, R.W., and Kim, K.J., “Bessel Tube for Driving Gaseous Molecules and Nanoparticles into Linear Motion”, disclosed but not publicly available, NASA Case No. LAR 19538-1, e-NTR#: 1539786201, Oct. 17, 2018.

[0010] Turkevich, A. L., “The Average Chemical Composition of the Lunar Surface”, Proceedings of the Lunar Science Conference, Vol. 4, pp.1159-1168, 1973.

[0105] The various implementations described herein serve as examples of aspects of the disclosure and should not be interpreted as to limit the scope of the disclosed invention.

[0106] While various inventive implementations have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and / or structures for performing the function(s) and / or obtaining the result(s) and / or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and / or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the implementations described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and / or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the teachings is / are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific inventive implementations described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing implementations are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, implementations may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed.Implementations of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, and / or kit described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, and / or kits, if such features, systems, articles, materials, and / or kits, are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure. ItAttorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTis to be understood that a singular form of a noun corresponding to an item may include one or more of the items, unless the relevant context clearly indicates otherwise.

[0107] As used herein, each of the terms “weight %”, “wt %”, and “w / w” can refer the mass of the specified component divided by the total mass of the mixture in which the component is part.

[0108] As used herein, each of the terms “volume %” and “vol %” can refer the volume of the specified component divided by the total volume of the mixture in which the component is part.

[0109] As used herein, each of the term “NI T can refer the volume of the specified component divided by the total mass of the mixture in which the component is part.

[0110] As used herein, each of the phrases “A or B,” “at least one of A and B,” “at least one of A or B,” “A, B or C,”, A, B, and C”, “at least one of A, B and C,” and “at least one of A, B, or C” may include any one of the listed items, or all possible combinations thereof. For example, use of “at least one of’ preceding a group of items should be interpreted in a disjunctive way with respect to the group of items, e.g., so that presence of one item of the group meets the meaning of the recitation.

[0111] The words “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include plural forms of elements unless specifically referenced as a single element. The term “at least” preceding a listing of elements denotes any one or any combination of the elements in the listing. In other words, the expression “at least one of ...” when preceding a list of elements, modifies the entire list of elements and does not modify the individual elements of the list.

[0112] The term “and / or” includes a combination of a plurality of related listed components, or any component among the plurality of related listed components.

[0113] Terms such as “first,” “second,” or “first” or “second” may be used simply to distinguish one component from other components, and do not limit the components in other aspects (e.g., importance or order).

[0114] Further, terms such as “front”, “rear”, “top”, “bottom”, “side”, “left”, “right”, “upper”, and “lower” used in the present disclosure are defined based on the drawings, and the shape and location of each component are not limited by the terms.

[0115] The term “comprise(ing)”, “include(ing)” or “have(ing)” is intended to indicate the presence of a characteristic, number, step, operation, process, component, part, feature, function,Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTand / or element, or any combination thereof described in the present document, and the possibility of the presence or addition of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, processes, components, parts, features, functions, and / or elements, or any combination thereof is not precluded.

[0116] When a component is “connected,” “coupled,” “supported,” or “in contact” with another component, this includes not only cases in which components are directly connected, coupled, supported, or in contact with each other, but also cases in which they are indirectly connected, coupled, supported, or in contact through a third component.

[0117] When a component is disposed “on” another component, this includes not only a case in which the component is in contact with another component, but also a case in which still another member is present between the two components.

[0118] A term, such as “about” or “substantially,” is used at a corresponding numerical value or used as a meaning close to the numerical value when e.g., manufacturing and material tolerances which may be inherent in the stated meaning are presented. In particular, as used herein, the terms “about” and “approximately” refer to values that are plus or minus ten percent of the base value. That is, for example, reference to “about 100” or “approximately 100” refers to “90-110” inclusive. In some implementations, “about” may refer to plus or minus five percent of the base value, or plus or minus two percent of the base value.

[0119] As used herein, the term “dissociation” can be synonymous with “decomposition” and can refer to a chemical reaction in which one or more reactants can be broken down into smaller particles (e.g., elements, molecules, ions, and radicals) and which can be irreversible, or may be reversible under appropriate re-combination conditions (e.g., chemical synthesis conditions).

Claims

Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTCLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. An oxide decomposition apparatus comprising:a housing having a material inlet configured to receive oxide material into the housing, the oxide material including oxygen and an oxide base material;an oxide material holder in the housing and configured to hold the received oxide material;an oxide material heater configured to heat the oxide material held in the oxide material holder;an electron beam gun configured to bombard the heated oxide material with electrons in the housing so that the oxide material is decomposed into oxygen and the oxide base material; andan oxygen collector configured to collect the oxygen.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe oxide material heater includes:a primary reflector,a secondary reflector spaced from the primary reflector, andthe primary reflector is configured to focus solar radiation from a star onto the secondary reflector, and the secondary reflector is configured to concentrate the focused solar radiation onto a target plane which is coplanar with the oxide material held in the oxide material holder.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:a beam steering reflector configured to intersect the concentrated solar radiation and guide the concentrated solar radiation to the target plane,Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCTwherein the oxide material heater is configured to move corresponding to a movement of the star.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:a movable oxide base material collector configured to collect the oxide base material decomposed from the oxide material and move the collected oxide base material from the housing,wherein the oxide base material collector includes an oxide base material heater configured to transfer heat to the collected oxide base material.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe oxygen collector includes a Bessel Tube having a turbo molecular pump and configurable to attract the oxygen decomposed from the oxide material.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe oxide material holder is configured to hold the oxide material while the oxide material is heated by the oxide material heater and while the oxide material is bombarded with the electrons.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, whereinthe material inlet is connected to the oxide material holder.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe oxide base material includes at least one of and alkaline earth metal (Group 2), a transition metal (Groups 3-12), a triel (Group 13), and a tetrel (Group 14).Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT9. The apparatus of claim 8, whereinthe oxide base material includes at least one of Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Si, and Ti.

10. A method of decomposing an oxide material including oxygen and an oxide base material, the method comprising:by a controller controlling,heating the oxide material,bombarding the heated oxide material with electrons from an electron gun so that the heated oxide material is decomposed into oxygen and the oxide base material, and collecting the oxygen decomposed from the oxide material.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the collecting further includes:accelerating the oxygen with a Bessel tube, andpumping the oxygen into a storage container.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the heating further includes:concentrating solar radiation from a star onto the oxide material.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:collecting the oxide base material decomposed from the oxide material in an oxide base material collector; andmoving the collected oxide base material to an oxide base material separation process.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:transferring heat to the collected oxide base material with an oxide base material heater.Attorney Docket No. 2691.1005PCT15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:with the oxide base material separation process,holding the oxide base material in a crucible,heating the held oxide base material to a first temperature greater than or equal to a melting temperature of a first element contained in the oxide base material so that the first element melts,removing the melted first element from the crucible, andleaving a second element of the oxide base material having a melting temperature greater than the melting temperature of the first element remaining in the crucible.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:separating the oxide base material into pure constituent elements.

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