Invention Grant
- Patent Title: System for extracting water from lunar regolith and associated method
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Application No.: US18307044Application Date: 2023-04-26
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Publication No.: US11891896B2Publication Date: 2024-02-06
- Inventor: Philip Metzger
- Applicant: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.
- Applicant Address: US FL Orlando
- Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.
- Current Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.
- Current Assignee Address: US FL Orlando
- Agency: ALLEN, DYER, DOPPELT + GILCHRIST, PA
- Main IPC: E21C51/00
- IPC: E21C51/00 ; B03C1/30 ; B03C7/02 ; B04C9/00 ; B64G4/00 ; B64G5/00

Abstract:
The system extracts water from lunar regolith and includes a regolith intake having a digging bucket that collects lunar regolith soil and a gravel separator that separates and discharges gravel and passes a mixture of ice-regolith powder having ice grains that are about 10-100 microns along the conveyor. A pneumatic separator receives the ice-regolith powder and pneumatically splits the ice-regolith powder into streams of different sized lithic fragments and ice particles per the ratio of inertial force and aerodynamic drag force of the lithic fragments and ice particles. Each split stream may include a magnetic separator that separates further the magnetic and paramagnetic lithic fragments from ice particles to discharge up to 80 percent of lithic fragments to slag.
Public/Granted literature
- US20230265759A1 SYSTEM FOR EXTRACTING WATER FROM LUNAR REGOLITH AND ASSOCIATED METHOD Public/Granted day:2023-08-24
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