Abstract
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors:“Human space exploration is too expensive. Without a major change in strategy, NASA’s budget will notsupport an exciting exploration program that can justify its own existence. It has been estimated that up to80% of the cost of establishing and maintaining a human outpost in deep cislunar space is in launching andtransporting propellant from the surface of the Earth. If plentifully available in cislunar space, water can beelectrolyzed into O2 and H2 and liquefied for use in cryogenic propulsion, or used directly as propellant insolar thermal rockets, to provide a breakthrough in affordable transportation. Historically the lunar surfacehas been viewed as an unpromising source of propellant feedstocks due to the difficulties of providing powerduring the 14-day lunar night and due to the paucity of accessible volatiles in the lunar maria.”
NETL
NSTL