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Production of Synthetic Lunar Simulants

Award Information
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Branch: N/A
Contract: NNX09CF43P
Agency Tracking Number: 085439
Amount: $99,300.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: X3.03
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2008
Award Year: 2009
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2009-01-22
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2009-07-22
Small Business Information
2845 29th Street
Boulder, CO 80301-1229
United States
DUNS: 079891292
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: Yes
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Michael Weinstein
 Principal Investigator
 (303) 530-2727
 mike@zybekap.com
Business Contact
 Michael Weinstein
Title: Manager
Phone: (303) 530-2727
Email: mike@zybekap.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Zybek Advanced Products has proven the ability to produce industrial quantities of lunar simulant materials, including glass, agglutinate and melt breccias. These are critical components in the NU-LHT-series and OB1 lunar simulants. The feed stock for this simulant is a mining industry by-product. The feedstock contains many contaminates, may not always be available, and can be inconsistent.

Although the standard lunar simulant produced from the mineral industry byproduct feedstock is useful for some applications, many projects require a simulant with a higher fidelity. This project provides the means to produce individual components that are not available from terrestrial sources. These components can be mixed in different proportions to determine the effect on a particular process.

The basic theory of the innovation is to mix known industrial ingredients, bring to molten temperatures, allow time for full reaction (in molten state), and then control the cooling rate to cause re-crystallization. These components are readily available and can be processed at multi-ton rates in the plasma melter.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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