Materials Refining for Solar Array Production on the Moon (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781289148270)

Silicon, aluminum, and glass are the primary raw materials that will be required for production of solar arrays on the moon. A process sequence is proposed for producing these materials from lunar regolith, consisting of separating the required materials from lunar rock with fluorine. The fluorine is brought to the moon in the form of potassium fluoride, and is liberated from the salt by electrolysis in a eutectic salt melt. Tetrafluorosilane produced by this process is reduced to silicon by a plasma reduction stage; the fluorine salts are reduced to metals by reaction with metallic potassium. Fluorine is recovered from residual MgF and CaF2 by reaction with K2O.

Author: Geoffrey a. Landis
ISBN-10: 1289148279
ISBN-13: 9781289148270
Publisher: Bibliogov
Language: English
Published: 06/28/2013
Pages: 28
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.15lbs
Size: 9.69h x 7.44w x 0.06d