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Material Extraction

In order to process water bearing minerals, it has to be collected from the regolith.
Methods of material extraction have been studied. The easiest and most reliable method
is to use a series of cups attached to a roller chain. These cups will fill with material and then track backwards
into the vehicle and then deposit the material onto a sloped ramp. This allows for the material to slide down onto the
surface of the heated bed.

Initial testing required processing of sample materials. This required two forms of the material; test as collected, and crushed, or powdered.

Converting the 'pebbly' sample to a more manageable form required some sort of crushing action. A mortar-and-pestle was the first obvious choice. This proved to be unsuitable. A more industrial method was considered using a consumer-grade coffee grinder. This proved to be totally suitable:


grinder 1    grinder 2