Performance evaluation of a vapor-compression-cycle based heat pump system for a lunar habitat under the impact of dust deposits on the coupled radiators

Space exploration is gaining new momentum. A near-term goal set by NASA is to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface to enable more repeatable and affordable deeper space expeditions. Lunar dust is one of the dangerous environmental hazards causing serious problems for exploration activities. In this paper, a dynamic model is developed and used to study the impact of lunar dust on the performance of a thermal management system for a lunar habitat that is comprised of a vapor-compression cycle heat pump and a radiator loop. A heat pump to lift the heat rejection temperature is required due to high lunar daytime surface temperatures. Parametric studies on radiator size, percentage of dust coverage on the radiator, and lunar habitat location are carried out. The results show that lunar deposits can significantly increase the power consumption of the thermal management system. The lunar dust contamination problem raises the requirement for redundant design of the radiator loop for fault tolerance. A synergetic design of a thermal management system, a power generation system and robotic maintenance system is proposed to achieve maximal mass reduction for a whole lunar habitat system. •A heat pump system coupled with a radiator loop for a lunar habitat.•Performance evaluation of the heat pump system under dust impact.•Synergetic design to minimize system mass.