A REVIEW OF CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS OF ROBOTIC SPACE SYSTEMS FOR MINING OF HELIUM-3 NUCLEAR FUEL ON THE MOON

A REVIEW OF CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS OF ROBOTIC SPACE SYSTEMS FOR MINING OF HELIUM-3 NUCLEAR FUEL ON THE MOON

V.V. Sinyavsky
Doctor of Technical Science, S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation «ENERGIA», Profes-sor, Science Advisor, 4A, Lenin Street, Korolev, Moscow area, 141070, Russia, tel.: +7(495)513-79-10, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Doctor of Technical Science, Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU), Professor, 5-1, 2-ya Baumanskaya ul., Moscow, 105005, Russia, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received 17 April 2018

Abstract
The paper discusses the advantages of using helium-3 as an environmentally friendly nuclear fuel. Since the Earth is lacking reserves of helium-3 that would be economically sound to develop, the paper discusses the feasibility of its mining from the lunar regolith. The paper discusses the process and a lunar mining system based on solar power with the use of thermal and electric power from a nuclear heat and power plant with a thermionic converter reactor.

Key words
Helium-3, a thermonuclear fuel, lunar mining system, integrated processing of lunar regolith, lunar nuclear heat and power plant.

Bibliographic description
Sinyavsky, V. (2018). A review of conceptual designs of robotic space systems for mining of helium-3 nuclear fuel on the Moon. Robotics and Technical Cybernetics, 2(19), pp.5-15.

UDC identifier:
629.788:622(15)

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