Electrostatic beneficiation of lunar regolith has potential application for separating minerals for material processing on the moon. This paper describes the use of tribocharging lunar simulant prior to mineral grain separation. The lunar simulant JSC‐1 was sieved into five size fractions: <25μm, 25–50μm, 50–75μm, 75–100μm, >100μm for characterization, however only the 50–75μm fraction was passed through aluminum, copper and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) inclined plane chargers. The amount of charge acquired by the simulant is dependant upon the difference in the work function of the charging material and the mineral grain composition of the simulant itself. Various charge‐to‐mass ratios (Q/M) for the different tribocharging materials were obtained for JSC‐1 in vacuum as well as in air. XPS, SEM and Raman spectroscopy were used to evaluate the JSC‐1 simulant before and after beneficiation. Results indicate notable changes in mineral composition between pre‐ and post‐beneficiation samples after only a single pass through the aluminum inclined plane charger.


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    Title :

    Tribocharging Lunar Simulant in Vacuum for Electrostatic Beneficiation


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL FORUM-STAIF 2007: 11th Conf Thermophys.Applic.in Micrograv.; 24th Symp Space Nucl.Pwr.Propulsion; 5th Conf Hum/Robotic Techn & Vision Space Explor.; 5th Symp Space Coloniz.; 4th Symp New Frontrs & Future Con ; 2007 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)


    Published in:

    AIP Conference Proceedings ; 880 , 1 ; 951-956


    Publication date :

    2007-01-30


    Size :

    6 pages





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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