ISRU-based development of a lunar water astroparticle observatory

Lunar Water Astroparticle Observatories are proposed to be fabricated at the Lunar North and South Poles by use of Lunar in situ resources. These observatories will consist, initially, of a 10m×10m×10m basin excavated, to be filled with 1000 metric tons of water from the in situ resources at the Polar Regions. The water basin would be constructed by excavation of a cavity out of the regolith, lined with waterproof material and then filled with water extracted from the adjacent permanently dark crater regions. These permanently dark regions are believed to contain water (ice) at a 1–5% concentration level. This water would be extracted by microwave heating of the regolith, the evolved water vapor and other gases then captured, followed by condensation of the water vapor. The microwave heating would be done with a suspended source rastered over the ice field in a crater. The condensed water would be transported to the detector basins, would fill the basins, which would then be sealed to prevent evaporation to the Moon's environment. The energy for the construction of the cavity detectors and the water extraction would come from solar cell arrays fabricated on the surface of the Moon on crater rims to receive maximum sunlight, and integrated into an electric power system that would supply energy for the microwave melting of the ice, for the motive power for the cavity excavation and, later, for the operation of the detection and measurement systems deployed in and around the water observatory and the processing and the transmission of the data to Earth.