VADER
Volatile Auger Dryer Extraction from Regolith: a continuous, auger-based system that pulls water vapor straight from icy lunar soil for in-situ resource utilization.
Water made on the Moon, not shipped to it.
Water ice hides in the Moon's permanently shadowed craters, and turning it into oxygen and propellant is the key to staying. VADER replaces slow, batch-style volatile extraction with a single auger that conveys regolith, heats it into a controlled sublimation regime, confines the vapor for downstream capture, and discharges spent tailings, all continuously.
- Generates water vapor from icy regolith for downstream ISRU capture
- Controlled thermal processing keeps it in the sublimation regime
- Variable auger geometry tunes residence time, throughput, and heat transfer
| System | VADER: Volatile Auger Dryer Extraction from Regolith |
|---|---|
| Function | Continuous water-vapor extraction |
| Architecture | Single auger · convey + heat + confine + discharge |
| Environment | Lunar permanently shadowed regions |
| Readiness | TRL 4 · Phase I complete |
| Modeling | DEM & thermal models |
| Scale | CLPS-compatible · scalable to larger ISRU |
Technology Readiness Level is NASA's 1–9 scale for how mature a technology is, from basic principles (TRL 1) to flight-proven (TRL 9). NASA TRL scale ↗
One auger, four jobs, no cycling.
Convey
The auger continuously transports icy regolith from intake through the heated section: no batch load, seal, or unload cycle.
Heat
Controlled heating drives water ice into a sublimation regime, releasing vapor while limiting liquid-phase formation.
Confine
Regolith plugs and sealing confine the water vapor and direct it to a downstream cold-trap capture system.
Discharge
Spent, dried tailings exit the far end, ready for the next continuous charge of icy feedstock.
Turn it over yourself.
The VADER auger dryer and its iPEX excavation rover, in your browser. Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom.
Auger dryer & iPEX rover
Icy regolith is metered in low on the auger and conveyed up through a heated section, where controlled heating drives water ice to vapor. Regolith plugs confine the vapor and route it to a cold trap — convey, heat, confine, and discharge in a single auger.
Targeted maturation, not a clean sheet.
A Phase II would start from functional TRL 4 hardware and an existing modeling framework, focusing on the upgrades that turn a working concept into the highest-TRL auger-dryer vapor-extraction system.
"Build a little, test a little, learn a lot."
- SealImproved sealing & vapor confinement for higher capture efficiency.
- RegulatePressure regulation and thermal control across the auger.
- HandleIcy-simulant handling representative of polar regolith.
- CorrelateModel correlation against test data · DEM & thermal.
- TestRelevant-environment testing toward a CLPS-scale demonstration.
Hardware in the loop.
Auger-dryer assembly
Simulant feed · auger intake
Sublimation testbench · lab test