Other

Trustees of the Colorado School of Mines

Christopher Dreyer

Otis Raymond Walton

Edward Riedel

Ali Ismail Abdel-Hadi

George F Sowers, Jr

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.

System and method of extracting and collecting water from a regolith

A centrifugal sieve and method utilizes centrifugal force in rapidly-rotated cylindrical or conical screens as the primary body force contributing to size segregation. Within the centrifugal acceleration field, vibration and/or shearing flows are induced to facilitate size segregation and eventual separation of the fines from the coarse material. Inside a rotating cylindrical or conical screen, a separately-rotated screw auger blade can be used to transport material along the rotating cylinder or conical wall and to induce shearing in the material.

Centrifugal size-separation sieve for granular materials

An apparatus and a method include a pipe comprising a first end, a second end and an interior wall. The pipe is configured for rotation about an axis with a rotational rate sufficient for a cohesive material to remain stationary in a layer on the interior wall. A plurality of blades is configured for deflecting the cohesive material. Each of the blades includes a blade edge having a curvature corresponding to a portion of the interior wall. A support structure supports the blade edges with each of the blade edges proximate the interior wall and having an angle with respect to a plane perpendicular to the axis. An inlet apparatus feeds the cohesive material into the first end where a difference in rotational rate between the interior wall and the plurality of blades, and the angle determines a rate of conveyance of the cohesive material along the interior wall.

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Lakewood, CO, United States of America

Christopher Dreyer