form gaseous carbonyl compounds. This process has been used by mining companies on earth for many years, and research on its space applications is being conducted [14, 15]. These compounds can easily be condensed into liquids, and separated by low temperature, low pressure distillation. An alternative process is vacuum reduction [21], which would take better advantage of the high vacuum, and abundant solar energy. The major use of these substances will be to produce fuel and cargo tanks for the cargo ships the colonists will build. Water/Fuel/Propellant Production. The amount of water needed by the colonists is small, but water will be the major product of the colony, for life support and for fuel and propellant manufacture. Therefore, the solar oven must be sized accordingly. Water on Deimos is believed to be in loose combination with the surface material. Simple heating (900 degrees C) will drive the water out [1, 5]. LOx and liquid methane (LCH4) would be made, rather than LOx/LH2, because the energy requirements are much lower [16,17]. The LOx and LCH4 would be stored in the cargo ship fuel tank. A refrigeration unit would remain attached during storage. Cargo Ships. A typical cargo ship is illustrated in Fig. 7. The engine is one of the RL- 10 engines from the engine module (which is designed to separate into single engine sections). RL-lOs can use LOx/LCH4, once the proper injector has been installed [6]. A control package is attached near the engine. (At least two engines will always be kept at the colony). The cargo tank contains 180 tons of water. The propellant tanks contain enough fuel and propellant to put the cargo ship in ETO (Earth Transfer Orbit), provide 200 m/s for course corrections, and about 500 m/s to burn into HEEO. (Note: RL-lOs are normally rated for 4000 seconds of burn time. The RL-10 on the colony ship will see more than 10000 seconds worth of burn time. However, this doesn't present a problem. Although no single complete engine has been tested for that long, many of the parts have. Modifications required, if any, would be minor) [6]. Tanks (cargo and propellant) are manufactured with a balloon form. The balloon is filled with nickel carbonyl gas. Then, a solar mirror is aimed at the outside of the balloon. Inside, nickel will plate out on the hot spot. The balloon is slowly rotated until the desired thickness of metal is obtained. A possible schedule of operations is shown in Table III.
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