Microwave Extraction of Water from Icy Martian Regolith: Volumetric Heating Sizing

This paper presents a sized design for a Mars surface system based on volumetric microwave heating that preferentially heats ice and pore water within regolith. A microwave applicator, on a rover or a fixed plant, that heats icy regolith so released water vapour can be captured on a cold trap. The study is SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED: all values are computed from stated assumptions and published Martian environmental data, and no hardware was built or tested. The principal computed results are frequency GHz of 0.915, microwave power kW of 9, ice heating efficiency of 0.48, regolith batch kg of 900. Further results include ice fraction of 0.28, ice per batch kg of 252, energy per kg kJ of 554.8, batch energy MJ of 139.8. The design is a computed study for peaceful surface operations — power supply, thermal control, radiation protection, construction and resource extraction for a crewed base — and it has no targeting or weapon application. Losses, deratings for dust and temperature, and the margin between capacity and the stated load are reported alongside the headline figures, and the limitations section states what a physical test would still need to establish.