An Experimental Study of Losses in High Voltage AC Lunar Power Cables

This paper describes the status of AC cable testing work that focuses on the feasibility of high frequency AC power transmission on the lunar surface. This includes assessing impacts on the power cable performance when exposed to the Lunar soil environment in the vacuum of space. Test data was recorded for power cables operating at various AC frequencies and in various environmental conditions. The testing began with an impedance sweep, and a full power transmission test in ambient conditions without any Lunar regolith simulant (to gather baseline values). After, the test setup was moved into a “dirty” thermal-vacuum (T-VAC) chamber. This chamber enabled testing in a vacuum environment with Lunar regolith simulant. The desired outcome from the testing was to determine if there was any electrical interaction between simulant and cable whether in a vacuum or ambient pressure environment. The data recorded in vacuum and in the ambient environment were not significantly different, allowing additional testing to be completed in ambient conditions. Additional test configurations were completed with the cable coiled along the surface, buried within the simulant, and entirely separated from the simulant with no major discernable losses measured. Frequency selection also did not alter the test data.