John A Chapman lunar mining poster 20060723

development and operation of a surface mine in a remote location - south polar region of the moon

John A. Chapman, B.Sc., FCIM, P.Eng. and Marc Schulte, B.Sc. - Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Earth(jacms1@telus.net) (mschulte37@hotmail.com)

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Development and

Operation of a Surface

Mine in a Remote

Location – South Polar

Region of the Moon

8TH ILEWG CONFERENCE, PAPER NO. 102

COSPONSORED BY CNSA AND ILEWG

BEIJING, CHINA

JULY 26, 2006

John Chapman, BSc, FCIM, PEng and Marc Schulte, BSc

Mining engineers, Canada, Earth

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

• Challenge

• Objective

• Strategy

• Space Investment

• Moon/Mars Program

• Lunar Environment South Polar Region

• Lunar Surface Mine Development

• Equipment Selection

• Remote Control & Monitoring

• Recommendations

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

The Challenge

• Humans cannot survive as a single planetspecies as evidenced in the Earth’s fossilrecord of mass extinctions of life causedmainly by comet/asteroid impacts and super-volcanic eruptions

• Humans have a genetic “wiring” that drivesexploration (risk) for discovery of new placesand things (reward) – the earth no longerholds the exploration potential nor therewards needed by society – it is time tomove onto the rest of the Solar System

DUNCAN STEEL – TARGET EARTH

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Objective

TO CONTRIBUTE TO ACTIVITIES

RELATED TO SAVING THE HUMAN

SPECIES AND CREATING GREAT

WEALTH FOR SOCIETY

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Strategy

• Create an investment environment thatrewards space development by privateenterprise

• Support the lunar/mars program

• Develop lunar base systems and proceduresthat as much as possible use technologiesand equipment applications from Earth (low-cost, versatile, redundant and reliable)

• Support enabling “foundation” technologiesfor space transportation, power/heat,communications

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Space Financing

Participating members of ILEWG should lobby nationaland state governments to offer a tax incentive to itscitizens for investment in space science andtechnology related to the exploration and humansettlement of space. That is, allow individuals and/orcorporations an immediate 100% tax write-off forinvestment in space related activities similar to theCanadian flow-through and tax-credit incentive toinvestors in Canadian mineralexploration activities. This will bringlarge numbers of private investorsinto the space program.

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Moon/Mars

Program

• Develop a permanent lunar base to use the

moon as a launch pad for deeper space

exploration, as well as tapping resources on

the lunar surface that could be used for

those missions, on earth and in LEO.

• Robotic missions to the moon beginning

2008

• Lunar manned missions beginning 2015

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Lunar Surface “Orebody”

Location & Mine Development• Remote sensing is now determining the best

location to robotically sample the Lunarsurface for hydrogen and oxygen

• Robotic sampling will determine the bestlocation for humans to directly test forconcentrations of hydrogen and oxygen

• Humans will need to use the same methodsas used on earth in determining thefeasible/optimum combination of mininglocation(s) as well as excavation andextraction methods (on Earth – maximizeNPV of deposit)

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Exploration & Development Strategy

(Highland Regolith to Crater Water Ice)

• Commence mining at the highland lunar baseutilizing regolith (non-water) for processing tohydrogen and oxygen (low risk low reward)

• Once systems and procedures are establishedbring in larger equipment & use the originalsmall equipment for crater bottom exploration(water ice) – close to or at lunar base

• Enter old crater (water ice and other “volatiles”from comet debris) with partly shaded bottomwith gentle sloping walls for ease of ingress andegress to the shaded “cold sink”

• Develop and operate a hydrogen, oxygen(nitrogen, carbon) mining and processing facilityin or near the crater bottom (high risk highreward)

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Lunar Environment

South Polar Region

• Temperature: Highlands -53oC +/-10, Craters -233oC +/-0(equatorial: -18oC +/-140)

• Atmosphere: thin, essentially non-existent (“hard”vacuum)

• Radiation: high ionizing radiation as very thin to no lunaratmosphere (significant danger to humans)

• Meteoroids: direct high velocity impact as no atmosphereto “burn” them up

• Gravity: 1.62m/s2 (~1/6g on Earth)

• Length of Day: 29.53 Earth days

• Dust: very dusty and a photoelectric change inconductivity at sunrise/sunset causes particles to levitateand adhere to surfaces (hard on equipment)

• Seismic Activity: few and of low magnitude (<4 on Richterscale)

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Lunar Base Infrastructure

• Nuclear power/heat – probably gas turbinemodular helium reactor (~1MW electric and~1.5MW heat) with associated agricultureand aquaculture modules

• Human habitat facilities and repair andmaintenance facility mainly for mining andprocessing equipment

• Wireless WiMAX mesh network forpositioning, monitoring, guidance andcommunicating with optical link with EarthInternet

• Spaceport near lunar mining base

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Arctic Experience

Mining Equipment Selection• Many years of experience in open-pit mining

in Northern Canada has shown that mobilemining equipment can operate with highavailability and high productivity in a verycold (-50oC) and dusty environment

• Equipment design has continued to improveto prevent “brittle” fracture and lubricantsand fluids have been developed that functionvery well in the harsh Arctic environment

• Heat tracing of structural components andfluid reservoir heating has all served toimprove equipment operations

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Remote Mining Location

Systems & Procedures• Carefully select crew members to be experienced and

mentally stable (capable)

• Maintain good crew quarters and medical facilities toensure high moral

• Reliable source of electric power and heat is essential

• Cross train crew members to enhance multi-taskingcapabilities

• Standardize equipment as much as possible includingmechanical, electrical and hydraulic - functions andfittings

• Maintain sufficient inventory of spare parts and materialsto operate efficiently

• Maintain a modern machine shop with maintenance andrepair facilities to optimize equipment availability andproductivity

• Maintain an efficient communications network on, to/fromthe operations site, with Internet access to the crew

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Mining - Equipment Selection• Equipment must be versatile so that it can perform

both development and operations tasks

• First equipment should be small, and then asdevelopment progresses and operations mature,larger (but similar) equipment should be deployed

• The first small equipment could then be adapted(nuclear power, extra heat tracing, insulating, etc.)for exploration of deep cold craters in the vicinity ofthe lunar mining base exploring for water icedeposits (high risk, high reward venture)

• The swing function on equipment will need to bemodified to slow acceleration and deceleration sothat F=ma does not over-balance the normal force onthe machine in the low lunar gravity (~1/6 Earth’s)

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Mining - Drilling the “Orebody”• The target area located by robotic sampling will need to

be auger drilled to ~2 meters depth on a grid pattern todefine a large enough hydrogen and oxygen resource tosatisfy the human (air and water) and equipment (rocketfuel, and fuel cell fuel) needs for at least ten years

• Neutron activation probe would analyze for hydrogen atthe borehole and report results in real time

• The use of hammer seismic may assist in defining thelunar bedrock profile and any regolith subsurfacevariations within the development area prior to drilling

• If water ice happens to be present in the highland regoliththat will create excitement (high-grade ore) but it couldcreate significant mining challenges if it is massive andcements the regolith particles – hard and abrasivematerial difficult to drill and to excavate (like Alberta OilSands)

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Standardize Systems

to Hydrogen & Oxygen

• Rocket propulsion: chemical (H2 & O2),

nuclear thermal (H2 or H2O), nuclear

thermal with O2 augmentation (H2 & O2)

• Humans: O2 & H2O

• Agriculture and Aquaculture: H2O

• Mobile equipment fuel cells: H2 & O2

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

USE PARALLEL CUT MINING METHOD (90 DEGREE SWING)

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Lunar Excavator & Powered

Side Dump Trailer

EARTH EXAMPLE TRACTOR TRAILER EARTH EXAMPLE SIDE DUMP TRAILERS

TRAILER CARBODY SAME AS EXCAVATOR & HYDRAULIC POWERED

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Lunar mining would be done during the daytime and processing would be done

at night. Operation crews would include, at least: mine engineer, extractive

metallurgical engineer, electrician, mechanic and equipment specialist – they

would be cross trained to both mine and process and they would need to have

Industrial first aid training

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

Komatsu PC18M-2

(Earth 1g Environment)

Power 11.2 kW

Operating Weight 1933 kg

Ground Pressure 0.33 kg/cm2

Travel Speed 2.3 km/hr (low)

4.3 km/hr (high)

Gradeability 30 degrees

Drawbar Pull 1700 kg

Digging Height 3615 mm

Bucket Reach 3935 mm

Digging Depth 1785 mm

Komatsu PC35MR-2

(Earth 1g Environment)

Power 21.7 kW

Operating Weight 3840 kg

Ground Pressure 0.35 kg/cm2

Travel Speed 2.8 km/hr (low)

4.6 km/hr (high)

Gradeability 30 degrees

Drawbar Pull 3600 kg

Digging Height 5010 mm

Bucket Reach 4550 mm

Digging Depth 2650 mm

THE HYDRAULIC

EXCAVATOR IS THE

MOST VERSATILE

PIECE OF

CONSTRUCTION

EQUIPMENT

AVAILABLE TODAY

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

RECOMMENDATIONSFinancing-Transportation-Power/Heat-Communication

• The most important factors that will provide thefoundation for commercial space development are:

– Private sector funding (tax-incentive driven)

– Commissioning of reusable Nuclear ThermalRockets with LOX augmentation

– Commissioning of small Gas Turbine ModularHelium Reactors

– Deployment of optical (laser) communicationssystems compatible with the Internet

• Nuclear technology is an essential component tolunar and general space development and must beembraced by governments and developers

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

REMOTE CONTROL &

MONITORING OF EQUIPMENT• Establish local metric grid coordinate system (if there is still no

lunar UTM high resolution datum available)

• Deploy antenna array (at least 6) around perimeter of lunarbase for communication (~10m baud) and positioning (+/-10cm)

• Use WiMAX/IEEE 802.16 broadband wireless mesh network onand around the lunar base for positioning, equipment andoperations health/safety monitoring, remote control,autonomous functions as well as performance monitoring andreporting

• There are several companies on Earth now successfullyproviding the positioning, control and monitoring systems,mentioned above, to surface and underground mines

• Communicate with Earth using optical transmission via relaysatellite parked at Earth-Lunar L1 point and the UniversalSpace Network

• The end-to-end system connectivity would be TCP/IP compliantand be routered into the Earth’s Internet for mission controland public access

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

MOBILE HUMAN HABITAT (REFUG E) FOR EXPLORATION VENTURES

& FOR REMOTE CONTROL CENTER

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

TRANSPORTING HYDROGEN & OXYGEN TO SPACEPORT

Chapman/Schulte 2006/07

QUICK COUPLING

ATTACHMENTS WILL

FACILITATE SIGNIFICANT

VERSATILITY, INCLUDING:

(A) ROCK BUCKET

(B) ROCK BREAKING

(C) AUGER DRILLING

(D) VIBRATING COMPACTOR

& SEISMIC HAMMER

(E) MATERIAL HANDLING ARM A B

C D E