As humanity prepares to migrate to the frontiers of the Moon and other planets, the area of mining in space must go along for the purpose of exploration and in-situ resource utilization. In the present work the literature that has been developed over the years in the area of mining in space as applicable to Lunar and Martian environments is reviewed. Subsequently, the key mining technologies that are most suitable for Lunar and Martian environments are identified. From the literature review, it is concluded that an optimal combination of both mechanical methods and novel energy (lasers, microwaves, nuclear energy) methods for rock destruction drawing a trade off between the energy and mass would be the most ideal option for space applications. / One such technique of applying low power microwaves to the rocks to thermally weaken them without actually melting them before employing mechanical methods of rock destruction is investigated. Finite element simulations were carried out to simulate microwave heating of a calcareous rock to determine the temperature profiles and thermal stresses at different microwave heating times and powers. Preliminary experiments were carried out in order to determine the microwave susceptibility of terrestrial basalt (which has similar composition as Lunar and Martian rocks). Temperature and strength of the rock sample before and after microwaving was measured. / The results of the finite element simulation indicated that a calcareous rock with microwave responsive phase and a microwave non-responsive phase developed thermal stresses of large magnitudes exceeding the actual strength of the rock. The simulation methodology can be applied to other rock types as well, provided the thermal, electrical and structural properties of constituent mineral phases are available. / The preliminary experimental results showed that the basalt rock specimens used were quite susceptible to the low power microwaves. There was a decreasing trend in terms of the point load index of the rock samples as the microwaving exposure times were increased, with some rock samples showing visible cracks at higher microwaving times.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.83932 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Satish, Hemanth |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Engineering (Department of Mechanical Engineering.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002271527, proquestno: AAIMR22671, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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