One of the technologies we have been presented with as ESA Technology Broker UK is a Static Water Extraction System (SWES) developed by Interstellar Mapping.
Based in the UK, Australia and the USA, Interstellar Mapping are a multinational off-Earth mapping and technology company who have developed a water extraction system that can operate in extreme and remote conditions with no human interaction to extract and purify water from the Moon. The system can extract and purify 1kg of water per hour from the Moon’s regolith using just 1.3KW of power.
While the system has been developed for use on the Moon, it can be used on any planetary body that has gravity, extracting lunar water and other volatiles so they can be separated and stored in separate containers. This allows the volatiles to be used or analysed with little or no further processing.
Because the SWES can operate autonomously in extreme and remote environments it can be used for space applications as well as terrestrial ones. The system is anticipated to be able to operate without human interaction for 2-3 years before requiring maintenance and can be scaled up according to user need. Larger units for commercial and industrial applications, removing excess moisture from bulk material, can be deployed as part of a space mission.
Find Out More
You can find out more about the Static Water Extraction System (SWES), here.
If you would like to explore this technology further for potential applications, please get in touch with us by emailing contactus@esa-technology-broker.co.uk.