Developing Glassy Magnets from simulated Composition of Moon/Mars Regolith for Exploration Applications
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Developing Glassy Magnets from simulated Composition of Moon/Mars Regolith for Exploration Applications C. S. Ray1, N. Ramachandran2 and J. Rogers1 1 Exploration Science and Technology Division 2 BAE SYSTEMS Analytical Solutions Inc. Science and Technology Directorate NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL 35812
ABSTRACT The feasibility of preparing glasses and developing glass-ceramic materials that display magnetic characteristics using the simulated compositions of Lunar and Martian regoliths have been demonstrated. The reported results are preliminary at this time, and are part of a larger ongoing research activity at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) with an overall goal aimed at (i) developing glass, ceramic and glass-ceramic type materials from the Lunar and Martian soil compositions in their respective simulated atmospheric conditions, (ii) exploring the potential application areas of these materials through extensive materials characterization, and (iii) further improving the related materials properties through a variation of the processing methods. This research activity is an important component of NASA’s current space exploration program, which encourages feasibility studies for materials development using in situ resources on planetary bodies to meet the technological and scientific needs of future human habitats on these extra terrestrial outposts. This paper presents an overview of this on-going work at NASA (MSFC) and reports on a few selected results obtained to date. INTRODUCTION The long-term space exploration goals of NASA include developing human habitats and conducting scientific investigations on planetary bodies, especially on Moon and Mars. In-situ resource processing and utilization on planetary bodies, therefore, is recognized as an important and integral part of NASA’s space exploration program [1], since it can minimize (or eliminate) the level of up-mass (transporting materials from earth to the planetary bodies) and, hence, can substantially reduce the overall work-load and costs of exploration missions. Within this scope and context, a general effort aimed primarily at developing glass, glass-ceramic, or traditional ceramic type materials using Lunar and Martian soil simulants, and exploring various applications of these materials for planetary surface operations has been undertaken at NASA MSFC. Glass and ceramic materials have been playing important roles in the progress of human civilization since the ancient times with their range of applications expanding almost everyday. Examples of applications of these materials range from common, every day use of structural materials (building and sealing, composites, containers, automotive components, substrate materials for solar cell and electronic applications, etc.) to such sophisticated applications as optical including laser devices, glass fibers for communications, photonic devices (e.g., optical switching), gas sensors, bio-materials, numerous electronic ceramics (capacitor, magnet, semi-
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