NEEP533 Spring99 - Lecture 21

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Extraction of Solar Wind Volatiles

Lecture 21

Professor G. L. Kulcinski

March 15, 1999

The topics to be covered in this lecture are listed below:

  • What are the Solar Wind Volatiles (SWV's)?
  • What are the SWV's good for?
  • What is the state of the SWV's on the Moon?
  • At what temperature are the SWV's evolved from lunar regolith?

What are the Solar Wind Volatiles?

"The Solar Wind is a plasma of chemical elements, expelled as ionized atoms from the atmosphere of the Sun"

The Solar Wind Volatiles fall into 2 general classes (Lunar Sourcebook, Cambridge, 1991):

    1) Biogenic elements (H, C, O and N)

    2) Noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe)

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