Techniques and systems extract water from lunar regolith using microwave radiation and may also produce fuel from the extracted water. The system can distill the extracted water to remove impurities before electrolyzing the purified water into oxygen and hydrogen gases, which may then be cooled to form liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. A portion of the system may reside on a lunar landing module. Another portion of the system may be affixed to a robotic arm that is extendable from the lunar landing module. This portion of the system includes a water extraction unit, comprising a cone used as a cold trap. The cone may include cooling channels to keep the temperature of the smooth inner surface of the cone cold enough to trap particles of frost that attach to the inner surface. The frost is then scraped from the inner surface and collected.

Techniques and systems extract water from lunar regolith using microwave radiation and may also produce fuel from the extracted water. The system can distill the extracted water to remove impurities before electrolyzing the purified water into oxygen and hydrogen gases, which may then be cooled to form liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. A portion of the system may reside on a lunar landing module. Another portion of the system may be affixed to a robotic arm that is extendable from the lunar landing module. This portion of the system includes a water extraction unit, comprising a cone used as a cold trap. The cone may include cooling channels to keep the temperature of the smooth inner surface of the cone cold enough to trap particles of frost that attach to the inner surface. The frost is then scraped from the inner surface and collected.

Systems and methods for industrial robotic platforms. Squads of industrial robots autonomously communicate and work together. A control center may monitor the autonomous operations. Software at the control center, squad, and robot levels forms a distributed control system that analyzes various data related to the platform for monitoring of the various systems. Artificial intelligence, such as machine learning, is implemented at the control center, squad, and/or robot levels for swarm behavior driven by intelligent decision making. Each robot includes a universal platform attached to a task-specific tooling system. The robots may be mining robots, with a mining-specific tooling system attached to the universal framework, and configured for mining tasks. The platform is modular and may be used for other industrial applications and/or robot types, such as construction, satellite swarms, fuel production, disaster recovery, communications, remote power, and others.

The invention relates to a low-power microwave coring machine suitable for lunar rocks and a use method. The low-power microwave coring machine suitable for lunar rocks comprises an equipment platform, wherein the support framework front plate and the support framework rear plate are mounted on the equipment platform in a sliding manner, a rear end surface of the support framework rear plate is connected with a front end of the microwave generator mounted on the equipment platform, a rear end of the microwave generator is sequentially connected with the fixed waveguide, the rotary waveguide, the power divider and the drill drum, the high-precision slip ring structure is mounted on the drill drum, the gear ferrules are arranged on an outer wall of the rotary waveguide and an outer wall of the drill drum.

The invention relates to a low-power microwave coring machine suitable for lunar rocks and a use method. The low-power microwave coring machine suitable for lunar rocks comprises an equipment platform, wherein the support framework front plate and the support framework rear plate are mounted on the equipment platform in a sliding manner, a rear end surface of the support framework rear plate is connected with a front end of the microwave generator mounted on the equipment platform, a rear end of the microwave generator is sequentially connected with the fixed waveguide, the rotary waveguide, the power divider and the drill drum, the high-precision slip ring structure is mounted on the drill drum, the gear ferrules are arranged on an outer wall of the rotary waveguide and an outer wall of the drill drum.

A system and method of extracting frozen water from soil or a regolith and capturing the water is provided. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a water collection system to extract and collect water from regolith. The system is configured to heat the regolith in situ to a temperature at which frozen water in the regolith will vaporize. The water vapor is then captured and collected. In one embodiment, the system includes a power system to provide energy to the regolith to heat the regolith, an enclosure to trap the water vapor released from the heated regolith, and a container operably interconnected to the enclosure to collect the water vapor. In one embodiment, the system can be positioned at a production facility on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, or an asteroid.

A system and method of extracting frozen water from soil or a regolith and capturing the water is provided. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a water collection system to extract and collect water from regolith. The system is configured to heat the regolith in situ to a temperature at which frozen water in the regolith will vaporize. The water vapor is then captured and collected. In one embodiment, the system includes a power system to provide energy to the regolith to heat the regolith, an enclosure to trap the water vapor released from the heated regolith, and a container operably interconnected to the enclosure to collect the water vapor. In one embodiment, the system can be positioned at a production facility on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, or an asteroid.

A system and apparatuses for breaking down and collecting asteroids. The asteroid miner apparatus comprises a body, an aperture, a plurality of holes, a plurality of speakers, a drill, an attachment piece, a fan, a baggage, and a set of air compressors. The drill and plurality of speakers are attached to the body to break down matter. The set of air compressors expel air through the plurality of holes to create an atmosphere around the body. The fan is attached to the body to create a current of air though the aperture. The baggage is attached to the body to collect pieces of asteroid. The system comprises a plurality of asteroid miners and an attachment piece to connect the asteroid miners. The system may be placed around an asteroid or other piece of material to break down the material and collect portions of the material.

A system and apparatuses for breaking down and collecting asteroids. The asteroid miner apparatus comprises a body, an aperture, a plurality of holes, a plurality of speakers, a drill, an attachment piece, a fan, a baggage, and a set of air compressors. The drill and plurality of speakers are attached to the body to break down matter. The set of air compressors expel air through the plurality of holes to create an atmosphere around the body. The fan is attached to the body to create a current of air though the aperture. The baggage is attached to the body to collect pieces of asteroid. The system comprises a plurality of asteroid miners and an attachment piece to connect the asteroid miners. The system may be placed around an asteroid or other piece of material to break down the material and collect portions of the material.

The system extracts water from lunar regolith and includes a regolith intake having a digging bucket that collects lunar regolith soil and a gravel separator that separates and discharges gravel and passes a mixture of ice-regolith powder having ice grains that are about 10-100 microns along the conveyor. A pneumatic separator receives the ice-regolith powder and pneumatically splits the ice-regolith powder into streams of different sized lithic fragments and ice particles per the ratio of inertial force and aerodynamic drag force of the lithic fragments and ice particles. Each split stream may include a magnetic separator that separates further the magnetic and paramagnetic lithic fragments from ice particles to discharge up to 80 percent of lithic fragments to slag.