Lindsay Manteufel
I decided to work on the Mining the Moon project through the Future Research Pioneer Program (FRPP) to learn more about engineering and design beyond Earth. Through my classes, I learned about airplanes, aerodynamics, and balloon satellites, but I had not yet had the chance to explore the space aspect of aerospace engineering. My favorite classes have been aircraft design where we built an airplane, spacecraft design where we built a balloon satellite to conduct an experiment, and aerodynamics. In my second year at S&T, I built and successfully launched a level one rocket and received my level one certification from Tripoli Rocketry Association, and through this, I learned much about rockets. However, I still wanted to learn more about space. At that point, I was still curious about how engineering and design applies on the Moon or possibly even Mars. Excitedly, I applied to the Mining the Moon project through the FRPP.
This past summer I worked on the Mining the Moon project and hope to continue with the project. Our goal is to find an effective way to extract aluminum from lunar regolith (sand on the Moon). Sourcing materials from the Moon is much cheaper than sending metals, fuel, and life-sustaining resources into space on a rocket. To accomplish this goal, we begin by sorting lunar regolith by both particle size and magnetic charge.
Doing this helps sort the resources more before processing them. For example, regolith that is rich in aluminum is diamagnetic, so by sorting out the magnetic particles, extracting aluminum becomes easier. Once it is sorted, it goes through molten salt electrolysis to produce solid aluminum.
I enjoyed working on the project because it broadened my perspective on the future of space exploration and showed me that the aerospace industry is still thriving, important, and fun. Additionally, I learned what all goes into a project and how to collaborate with others. As the project goes through failures, we redesigned and tested until our goal was met. We worked with other projects that have similar goals or are in different stages in the mining process. For example, a different project took the results from our research and continued to the next step of isolating the aluminum. I was also introduced to working on projects in a more professional manner with considerations of budget, reliability, timelines, changing constraints, and deadlines.
Even though I am unsure about my career path within aerospace engineering, I am still enthusiastic about working on lunar projects. I am going to continue my research on the Mining the Moon project, and I am excited to see the project continue to improve. I look forward to implementing the next steps and testing the project in surroundings that mimic the Moon. I am eager to continue conducting research that leads us to study and visit the Moon. Through our research, I learned that I would love to continue working on lunar projects as both research and a career. I am thankful for the opportunity this program gave me to conduct research and learn more about engineering, and I am excited to see what comes next in both my career and space exploration.