Water Extraction from Icy Lunar Simulants using Low Power Microwave Heating

Water ice deposits existing in Lunar polar regions of permanent shadow at temperatures as low as 30 K could be a crucial resource required to sustain a human presence on the lunar surface. Recent work has shown microwaves efficiently heat lunar simulants, with promising results for the extraction of water from icy simulants. Through funding from The Open University’s Space SRA initiative, and ESA’s Off-Earth Manufacturing and Construction Campaign, we have heated lunar simulants doped with water cooled down to initial temperatures of < 120 K in a microwave heating unit (MHU). The MHU supplies microwaves, adjustable in power from 0 to 1 kW, to samples in a cavity capable of operating at pressures from 1 atm down to 10-5 mbar