{"685800":{"#nid":"685800","#data":{"type":"news","title":"A Buried Solar Reciever to Melt Lunar Ice","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA \u003Cstrong\u003ENASA-funded\u003C\/strong\u003E research team at Georgia Tech has developed a new method to extract water from the Moon\u2019s icy polar regions using concentrated sunlight\u2014turning one of the Moon\u2019s biggest challenges into an energy advantage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELed by Thom Orlando, with co-author Peter Loutzenhiser lending his solar energy expertise, the researchers are experimenting with heliostats\u2014solar concentrating mirrors\u2014to beam concentrated solar radiation down into the Moon\u2019s shadowed craters. There, the heat can release water vapor from the frozen regolith, providing hydrogen and oxygen for propulsion fuels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe envision mounting these heliostats on the rim of the crater and then fixing them in such a way that they beam the solar irradiation down,\u201d Loutzenhiser said. \u201cThe concentrations would be much greater than on Earth due to no attenuation, as the Moon has little to no atmosphere.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team\u2019s experimental results, published in \u003Cem\u003EActa Astronautica\u003C\/em\u003E, offer a practical path toward sustainable lunar resource use and future space exploration.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.solarpaces.org\/a-buried-solar-receiver-to-melt-lunar-ice\/\u0022\u003ERead the full article\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA NASA-funded team at Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a method to use heliostats to redirect sunlight into the Moon\u2019s shadowed craters, extracting water from icy regolith.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A NASA-funded team at Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a method to use heliostats to redirect sunlight into the Moon\u2019s shadowed craters, extracting water from icy regolith."}],"uid":"36757","created_gmt":"2025-10-17 20:42:35","changed_gmt":"2025-10-30 14:16:26","author":"ychernet3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-10-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-10-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"678501":{"id":"678501","type":"image","title":"AdobeStock_454146737.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1761833755","gmt_created":"2025-10-30 14:15:55","changed":"1761833755","gmt_changed":"2025-10-30 14:15:55","alt":"Lunar surface","file":{"fid":"262547","name":"AdobeStock_454146737.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/10\/30\/AdobeStock_454146737.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/10\/30\/AdobeStock_454146737.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3739517,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/10\/30\/AdobeStock_454146737.jpeg?itok=o2GKFkce"}}},"media_ids":["678501"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660370","name":"Space"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193657","name":"Space Research Initiative"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}