A Buried Regolith Sensible-Heat Store Carrying Habitat Heat Through the Lunar Night

This study sizes a buried regolith sensible-heat store that carries a 354-hour lunar night heating load of 10 kilowatts: allowing for losses, the store must hold 4.4 megawatt-hours of heat, requiring 99.6 tonnes of regolith swung through 200 kelvin, a volume of 66 cubic metres equivalent to a cube 4.0 metres on a side. Sizing follows from computed thermal budgets derived in the study. This is a computed study with no targeting or weapon application. The work is simulated and computed from stated assumptions, not measured.