"Magnetic Separation of Lunar Regolith Simulants with Applications to i" by Peter Bachle, Jeffrey Smith et al.
 

Abstract

The development of in situ resource utilization (ISRU) for metal extraction is imperative as a steppingstone for habitation construction in lunar and non-terrestrial environments. Separation of minerals by chemical composition is important to optimize metal and oxygen liberation from lunar ore. to this effect, devices capable of separating aluminum bearing minerals from iron-bearing minerals from the lunar regolith simulants have been developed. Twenty-eight different simulants have been used in this study. a dual-belt separator was designed to reduce middlings. Para-magnetic minerals were reliably separated using a neodymium N52-magnet-separator system. Effective separation of aluminum-bearing minerals from iron-bearing minerals was greater than 72% in all experimental runs. Larger grain size, lower agglutinate content, and very low free iron content improved magnetic separation of lunar regolith simulants.

Department(s)

Materials Science and Engineering

Second Department

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Third Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Fourth Department

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Comments

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Grant None

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-078448573-6

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 American Society of Civil Engineers, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2024

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