Lunar In-Situ Thermal Wadis

Lunar Thermal Wadis are structures that store thermal energy in a large thermal mass, and either release it slowly to allow assets like rovers to survive the lunar night, or use it to generate power. No credible hardware architectures have been proposed to quickly create a large enough thermal mass to use in a Wadi. Ethos Space intends to mature an innovation for an implement which is a modular and detachable piece of equipment to directly melt the lunar regolith in-situ and at depth to rapidly produce a large thermal mass that is extremely hot at the beginning, and can also be recharged after it cools. The proposed effort will create computer simulations of the Wadi, design an implement that uses the Ethos Durandal heaters to create a thermal mass, and carry out a small demonstration of creating a thermal mass with lunar regolith simulant in a vacuum chamber. The intended use of funding includes salary, and equipment for the small demonstration. The target markets are governments and private companies who are sending expensive hardware to the Moon, such as the Lunar Terrain Vehicle, the Pressurized Rover, and other mobility systems and equipment. Ethos intends to offer survive-the-night as a service by building and/or leasing use of Thermal Wadis to diverse customers who will use them to greatly increase the longevity of their missions, getting closer to the goal of sustained lunar exploration.