中文

Chinese Journal of Nature ›› 2013, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (1): 1-008.

• Invited Special Paper •     Next Articles

Prospect of lunar metallurgical industrial research

CHEN Zhi-yuan①, CHOU Kuo-chih②   

  1. ①Ph. D. Candidate, Metallurgical Engineering School, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China; ②Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072; University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
  • Received:2012-12-12 Revised:2013-01-12 Online:2013-02-25 Published:2013-02-25

Abstract:           Exploiting programs on the moon are developed in several nations at the initial decade of 21st century. Mineralogy is the principal direction of the study of the Moon. ISRU (in situ resource utilization) focuses on the production of raw materials from minerals on the lunar surface, which is an important study of lunar exploitation. However, the production methods and systems developed in the viewpoint of metallurgy are rare. Lunar extraction metallurgy is different from the traditional industrial production processes currently on the Earth. New processes should be developed by metallurgists. Some studies which considered metallurgical production in ISRU are concluded and the suggestion of the development of lunar metallurgy industry was raised.

Key words: space technology, ISRU, ilmenite, Moon