Accessible Carbon on the Moon

TL;DR

This study evaluates lunar carbon sources for space exploration, finding polar ices as promising but limited resources for propellant, with potential sites identified for future prospecting and utilization.

Contribution

It introduces a model combining remote sensing and temperature data to assess lunar carbon deposits and identifies promising polar regions for resource extraction.

Findings

Polar ices may contain exploitable carbon for propellant production.

Most lunar regions are poor in accessible carbon compared to Mars.

Certain polar hotspots have nearby staging areas suitable for resource extraction.

Abstract

Carbon is one of the most essential elements to support a sustained human presence in space, and more immediately, several large-scale methalox-based transport systems will begin operating in the near future. This raises the question of whether indigenous carbon on the Moon is abundant and concentrated to the extent where it could be used as a viable resource including as propellant. Here, I assess potential sources of lunar carbon based on previous work focused on polar water ice. A simplified model is used to estimate the temperature-dependent Carbon Content of Ices at the lunar poles, and this is combined with remote sensing data to estimate the total amount of carbon and generate a Carbon Favorability Index that highlights promising deposits for future ground-based prospecting. Hotspots in the index maps are identified, and nearby staging areas are analyzed using quantitative models of trafficability and solar irradiance. Overall, the Moon is extremely poor in carbon sources compared to more abundant and readily accessible options at Mars. However, a handful of polar regions may contain appreciable amounts of subsurface carbon-bearing ices that could serve as a rich source in the near term, but would be easily exhausted on longer timescales. Four of those regions were found to have safe nearby staging areas with equatorial-like illumination at a modest height above the surface. Any one of these sites could yield enough C, H and O to produce propellant for hundreds of refuelings of a large spacecraft. Other potential lunar carbon sources including bulk regolith and pyroclastic glasses are less viable due to their low carbon concentrations.