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Problem Statement

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Mars contains vast underground reserves of hydrated minerals—rocks that chemically trap water molecules. The goal of this project was to build a proof-of-concept device that extracts usable water from these hydrates, helping enable:​

  • Human settlement and colonization

  • In-situ water generation via heat transfer, thermodynamics, and mechanical design

Working of System

The system uses electric heating and mechanical transport to extract water from Martian soil simulant:

  1. Hydrate Input: Hydrated minerals are loaded into a 3D-printed hopper

  2. Transport: A stainless-steel auger (rotating screw) moves the hydrates through a heating pipe.

  3. Heating: The steel pipe is wrapped in resistive heating tape, raising the temperature to ~218°C.

  4. Vaporization & Condensation: Water vapor escapes through 5 side tubes and condenses (or freezes) into a stainless-steel tank.Storage:

  5. Storage: â€‹Water is stored as ice using Mars’ ambient -70°C temperature.

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Engineering Contributions

Mechanical Design & CAD Modeling:

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  • Designed components of assembly in SolidWorks, including:

    • Auger, shaft adapter, bearing mounts

    • Heating tube system with multi-material insulation

    • 36L stainless-steel water storage tank
       

Thermal & Mass Transfer Calculations

  • Performed energy balance, fin conduction, and lumped capacitance modeling to size the heater and optimize hydration time.
    Insert Figure 13: Cooling tube temperature plot

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Material Selection & Safety Analysis

  • Selected 304 stainless steel for its high creep resistance and corrosion stability at elevated temperatures.

  • Designed insulation layers using ceramic wool and Kapton foil, minimizing heat loss and meeting NASA’s <30 W/m² emission protocol.
     

Prototyping & Testing

  • Fabricated parts using welding, waterjet cutting, shear bending, and machining.

  • Ran trials using Martian soil simulant and hydrated copper sulfate to validate vapor release and condensation.

  • Integrated Arduino-based sensors for temperature and humidity tracking.

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