Regolith Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage for Lunar Night Survival

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies for future deep-space exploration is a current hot topic considering planned lunar missions for the coming years. Energy generation and storage using regolith can be useful not only for future lunar human outposts but also to assist lunar mining or construction activities during the lunar night. Here we explore the design of a packed bed Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system using regolith as the storage media through a numerical model. System requirements are analyzed depending on landing sites and mission needs. Different heat transfer fluids (HTF) are evaluated for the TES charge/discharge, using media available from other complementary ISRU processes (i.e. oxygen/water production from lunar regolith) or gases indispensable for life support systems. Raw regolith of varied composition, several Earth materials and processed/reduced regolith are compared, and different TES integration options are discussed.