月球冶金技术的发展前景

探月行动自阿波罗登月计划以来经历几次起落,但是可以预见的是,对月球的开发是人类以后将会面临的共同课题。各国对月球的科学研究中,关于月球矿产资源的贫富、分布状况都获得了比较确实的信息,对于这些矿产资源的利用也已经开始了研究。但从冶金工程角度研究月球原位资源利用技术的工作还不多。利用月球自有矿产资源提取金属原料,可以有力保障月球开发过程中的基础建设项目,加快月球开发的速度。通过对月球资源和能源的考察,以月表主要矿物钛铁矿为例,总结了适用于月球环境的冶金方法,并探讨月球冶金工业的建设原则和研究方向。

Prospect of lunar metallurgical industrial research

Exploiting programs on the moon are developed in several nations at the initial decade of 21st century. Mineralogy is the principal direction of the study of the Moon. ISRU (in situ resource utilization) focuses on the production of raw materials from minerals on the lunar surface, which is an important study of lunar exploitation. However, the production methods and systems developed in the viewpoint of metallurgy are rare. Lunar extraction metallurgy is different from the traditional industrial production processes currently on the Earth. New processes should be developed by metallurgists. Some studies which considered metallurgical production in ISRU are concluded and the suggestion of the development of lunar metallurgy industry was raised.