Getting lunar ilmenite: From soils or rocks

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:7164112

Vaniman, D T; Heiken, G H

Lunar soils or rocks can be mined as sources of ilmenite for producing oxygen. However, separable crystals of loose ilmenite in lunar soils are rare (<2%) and small (<200 {mu}); most ilmenite in the regolith is locked together with silicate minerals as rock fragments. Since fragmentation of rock sources must be attempted to win appreciable amounts of ilmenite ({approximately}10% or more), selective collection of high-Ti basalt fragments larger than 1 cm for fragmentation and ilmenite beneficiation may be advantageous over extensive processing of fine lunar soil. Many alternative processing schemes for fragmenting rocks on the Moon have been proposed; one process which was tested early in the Apollo program successfully disaggregated lunar and terrestrial basalts by passive exposure to low-pressure alkali (K) vapor. This process is worthy of reinvestigation. 14 refs., 3 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/DP; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 7164112
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-89-3013; CONF-900442-2; ON: DE90000538
• Resource Relation: Conference: Engineering, construction and operations for space, Albuquerque, NM (USA), Apr 1990
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
ILMENITE
FRAGMENTATION
LUNAR MATERIALS
EVALUATION
OXYGEN
PRODUCTION
PROCESSING
ROCKS
SOILS
CHALCOGENIDES
ELEMENTS
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON OXIDES
MATERIALS
MINERALS
NONMETALS
OXIDE MINERALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
TITANIUM COMPOUNDS
TITANIUM OXIDES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
580000* - Geosciences