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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Lunar Polar In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) as a Stepping Stone for Human Exploration

A major emphasis of NASA is to extend and expand human exploration across the solar system. While specific destinations are still being discussed as to what comes first, it is imperative that NASA create new technologies and approaches that make space exploration affordable and sustainable. Critical to achieving affordable and sustainable exploration beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) are the development of technologies and approaches for advanced robotics, power, propulsion, habitats, life support, and especially, space resource utilization systems. Space resources and how to use them, often called In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), can have a tremendous beneficial impact on robotic and human exploration of the Moon, Mars, Phobos, and Near Earth Objects (NEOs), while at the same time helping to solve terrestrial challenges and enabling commercial space activities. The search for lunar resources, demonstration of extraterrestrial mining, and the utilization of resource-derived products, especially from polar volatiles, can be a stepping stone for subsequent human exploration missions to other destinations of interest due to the proximity of the Moon, complimentary environments and resources, and the demonstration of critical technologies, processes, and operations. ISRU and the Moon: There are four main areas of development interest with respect to finding, obtaining, extracting, and using space resources: Prospecting for resources, Production of mission critical consumables like propellants and life support gases, Civil engineering and construction, and Energy production, storage, and transfer. The search for potential resources and the production of mission critical consumables are the primary focus of current NASA technology and system development activities since they provide the greatest initial reduction in mission mass, cost, and risk. Because of the proximity of the Moon, understanding lunar resources and developing, demonstrating, and implementing lunar ISRU provides a near and early opportunity to perform the following that are applicable to other human exploration mission destinations: Identify and characterize resources, how they are distributed, and the material, location and environment in which they are found; Demonstrate concepts, technologies, and hardware that can reduce the cost and risk of human exploration beyond Earth orbit; Use the Moon for operation experience and mission validation for much longer missions that are farther from Earth Develop and evolve ISRU to support sustained, economical human presence beyond Earth's orbit, including promoting space commercialization As Table 1 depicts, the Moon provides environments and resources applicable to Mars and NEOs. Two lunar ISRU resource and product pathways that have notable synergism with NEO, Phobos/Demos, and Mars ISRU are oxygen/metal extraction from regolith, and water/volatile extraction from lunar polar materials. To minimize the risk of developing and incorporating ISRU into human missions, a phased implementation plan is recommended that starts with prospecting and demonstrating critical technologies on robotic and human missions, then performing pilot scale operations (in non-mission critical roles) to enhance exploration mission capabilities, leading to full utilization of space resources in mission critical roles. Which lunar ISRU pathway is followed will depend on the results of early resource prospecting/proof-ofconcept mission(s), and long-term human exploration plans.

Sanders, Gerald B.↗
NASA NTRS2005

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Capability Roadmap Progress Review

A progress review on In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) capability is presented. The topics include: 1) In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Capability Roadmap: Level 1; 2) ISRU Emphasized Architecture Overview; 3) ISRU Capability Elements: Level 2 and below; and 4) ISRU Capability Roadmap Wrap-up.

Sanders, Gerald B.↗
NASA NTRS2014

NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission: A Robotic Boulder Capture Option for Science, Human Exploration, Resource Utilization, and Planetary Defense

NASA is examining two options for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), which will return asteroid material to a Lunar Distant Retrograde Orbit (LDRO) using a robotic solar electric propulsion spacecraft, called the Asteroid Redirect Vehicle (ARV). Once the ARV places the asteroid material into the LDRO, a piloted mission will rendezvous and dock with the ARV. After docking, astronauts will conduct two extravehicular activities (EVAs) to inspect and sample the asteroid material before returning to Earth. One option involves capturing an entire small (~4 - 10 m diameter) near-Earth asteroid (NEA) inside a large inflatable bag. However, NASA is also examining another option that entails retrieving a boulder (~1 - 5 m) via robotic manipulators from the surface of a larger (~100+ m) pre-characterized NEA. The Robotic Boulder Capture (RBC) option can leverage robotic mission data to help ensure success by targeting previously (or soon to be) well- characterized NEAs. For example, the data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa mission has been utilized to develop detailed mission designs that assess options and risks associated with proximity and surface operations. Hayabusa's target NEA, Itokawa, has been identified as a valid target and is known to possess hundreds of appropriately sized boulders on its surface. Further robotic characterization of additional NEAs (e.g., Bennu and 1999 JU3) by NASA's OSIRIS REx and JAXA's Hayabusa 2 missions is planned to begin in 2018. This ARM option reduces mission risk and provides increased benefits for science, human exploration, resource utilization, and planetary defense. Science: The RBC option is an extremely large sample-return mission with the prospect of bringing back many tons of well-characterized asteroid material to the Earth-Moon system. The candidate boulder from the target NEA can be selected based on inputs from the world-wide science community, ensuring that the most scientifically interesting boulder be returned for subsequent sampling. In addition, the material surrounding the boulder can be collected from the surface, thus providing geological contextual information and additional samples of NEA regolith. The robotic manipulators used for capturing the boulder will ensure some of the surface remains undisturbed and that the boulder will retain its structural integrity, which will preserve the context of any samples collected by the astronauts and ensure a high level of science return. Human Exploration: Due to the coherent nature of the boulder that will be collected, entire encapsulation of the asteroid material is not required. This facilitates exploration and sample collection of the boulder by astronauts in a variety of ways. The total time for EVA during the crew portion of the mission is very limited. Current estimates are that each of the two EVAs will only last four hours. The RBC option will allow crew members to have good situational awareness of the work site and quickly identify sample sites of interest. In addition, the samples to be collected can be readily accessed without having to deal with removal of an encapsulation system, which adds extra complexity and risk for the astronauts during EVA. Resource Utilization: One of the most crucial aspects for resource utilization is the identification and collection of appropriate materials (e.g., volatiles, organics, metals, etc.) that contain components of interest. Prior characterization of NEAs is required in order to increase the likelihood that appropriate materials will be returned. Ground-based observations of small (<10 m) NEAs are challenging, but characterization efforts of larger targets have demonstrated that NEAs with volatiles and organics have been identified. Two potential targets for the RBC option (Bennu and 1999 JU3) have been previously identified as potentially rich in resources, and both are already targets of currently planned robotic missions that will characterize their physical properties in great detail. Planetary Defense: The RBC option involves interaction with a well- characterized potentially hazardoussized NEA that would enable NASA to conduct one or more planetary defense demonstrations. The primary method would use the collected boulder to augment the mass of the ARV and perform an Enhanced Gravity Tractor (EGT) demonstration on the NEA. Additionally, other approaches could be demonstrated during the mission, such as Ion Beam Deflection (IBD) and/or observation of a Kinetic Impactor (KI). The relative effectiveness of a slow push-pull method such as the EGT or IBD could be directly compared and contrasted with the results of the more energetic KI method on the target NEA. Conclusions: This boulder option for NASA's ARM can leverage knowledge of previously characterized NEAs from prior robotic missions, which provides more certainty of the target NEA's physical characteristics and reduces mission risk. This increases the return on investment for NASA's future activities with respect to human exploration, resource utilization, and planetary defense.

Abell, P.↗
NASA NTRS2006

NASA In-Situ Resource Utilization Project-and Seals Challenges

A viewgraph presentation on NASA's In-Situ Resource Utilization Project and Seals Challenges is shown. The topics include: 1) What Are Space Resources?; 2) Space Resource Utilization for Exploration; 3) ISRU Enables Affordable, Sustainable & Flexible Exploration; 4) Propellant from the Moon Could Revolutionize Space Transportation; 5) NASA ISRU Capability Roadmap Study, 2005; 6) Timeline for ISRU Capability Implementation; 7) Lunar ISRU Implementation Approach; 8) ISRU Technical-to-Mission Capability Roadmap; 9) ISRU Resources & Products of Interest; and 10) Challenging Seals Requirements for ISRU.

Sacksteder, Kurt↗
NASA NTRS2005

Space Resource Utilization and Extending Human Presence Across the Solar System

The Presidents Vision for Exploration is not a single mission, but an open ended journey that seeks to answer "How can we live on other worlds?" Using space resources is the only known approach for affordable, sustained, flexible, and self sufficient, human occupation beyond Earth orbit. Earth is a large planet. A simple analysis using the rocket equation shows that if Earth were a bit larger, chemical propulsion as a mechanism to access space would become impractical. Thus, even with the most efficient chemical rocket launch capability, the cost of lifting massive payloads into space will remain very steep (currently about $l00k/lb to the Moon and greater than $500k/lb to Mars). Space resource utilization should begin with an aggressive broad based demonstration program as afforded by the precursor missions implementation of the President's Vision of Exploration. Ion engine upper stages, for example, were studied for over 30 years, but only implemented in design after the Deep Space 1 in space demonstration. These demonstrations should include: extraction of elements from lunar regolith, and Martian soil and atmosphere, demonstration of power break even and growth from lunar or Mars moons derived photovoltaics, oxygen extraction for life support and propellant, and metals and alloys for in space repair and the production of habits and radiation shielding. Space resource utilization yields operational dividends through the subsequent programs including: propellant from lunar oxygen which could cut transportation costs from Earth in half, mega watts per year of power grown from lunar photovoltaics at decreasing cost per kW, decreased cost for human Mars missions by a factor of 10 by using propellant derived from Mars atmosphere for return, and in space manufacturing and food production with space resources yielding safe sustained and eventually self sufficient human presence in space. After the demonstration and implementation, the space resource utilization investment enables commercial and private viability beyond Earth orbit. For example, analysis has shown the lunar oxygen production for propellant becomes commercially viable after the exploration program completes the R&D, and power from lunar derived photovoltaics could, according to past NASA sponsored studies, pay for themselves while supplying most of Earth's electrical energy after about 17 years. Besides the Moon and Mars the resources of the near Earth asteroids enable the building of large space structures and science payloads. Analysis has shown that one of the thousands of these objects (some as easily accessible in space as the Moon and Mars), 2 km dia, the size of a typical open pit mine, would cost the total global financial product of Earth for 30,000 years if we were to launch it from Earth. Beyond Mars, the belt asteroids have been calculated to contain enough materials for habitat and life to support 10 quadrillion people. Thus, the development and use of space resources enables the extension of human life through the solar system allowing humanity to move from a planetary to a solar system society.

Curreri, Peter A.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Solar System Exploration Augmented by In-Situ Resource Utilization: Mercury and Saturn Propulsion Investigations

Human and robotic missions to Mercury and Saturn are presented and analyzed with a range of propulsion options. Historical studies of space exploration, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and industrialization all point to the vastness of natural resources in the solar system. Advanced propulsion benefitted from these resources in many ways. While advanced propulsion systems were proposed in these historical studies, further investigation of nuclear options using high power nuclear thermal and nuclear pulse propulsion as well as advanced chemical propulsion can significantly enhance these scenarios. Updated analyses based on these historical visions will be presented. Nuclear thermal propulsion and ISRU enhanced chemical propulsion landers are assessed for Mercury missions. At Saturn, nuclear pulse propulsion with alternate propellant feed systems and Titan exploration with chemical propulsion options are discussed. In-situ resource utilization was found to be critical in making Mercury missions more amenable for human visits. At Saturn, refueling using local atmospheric mining was found to be difficult to impractical, while refueling the Saturn missions from Uranus was more practical and less complex.

space propulsion↗
NASA NTRS2010

Integration of In-Situ Resource Utilization Into Lunar/Mars Exploration Through Field Analogs

The NASA project to develop In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies, in partnership with commercial and international collaborators, has achieved full system demonstrations of oxygen production using native regolith simulants. These demonstrations included robotic extraction of material from the terrain, sealed encapsulation of material in a pressurized reactor; chemical extraction of oxygen from the material in the form of water, and the electrolysis of water into oxygen and hydrogen for storage and reuse. These successes have provided growing confidence in the prospects of ISRU oxygen production as a credible source for critical mission consumables in preparation for and during crewed missions to the moon and other destinations. Other ISRU processes, especially relevant to early lunar exploration scenarios, have also been shown to be practical, including the extraction of subsurface volatiles, especially water, and the thermal processing of surface materials for civil engineering uses and for thermal energy storage. This paper describes these recent achievements and current NASA ISRU development and demonstration activity. The ability to extract and process resources at the site of exploration into useful products such as propellants, life support and power system consumables; and radiation and rocket exhaust plume debris shielding, known as In-Situ Resource Utilization or ISRU, has the potential to significantly reduce the launch mass, risk, and cost of robotic and human exploration of space. The incorporation of ISRU into missions can also significantly influence technology selection and system development in other areas such as power, life support, and propulsion. For example. the ability to extract or produce large amounts of oxygen and/or water in-situ could minimize the need to completely close life support air and water processing system cycles, change thermal and radiation protection of habitats, and influence propellant selection for ascent vehicles and surface propulsive hoppers. While concepts and even laboratory work on evaluating and developing ISRU techniques such as oxygen extraction from lunar regolith have been going on since before the Apollo 11 Moon landing, no ISRU system has ever flown in space, and only recently have ISRU technologies been developed at a scale and at a system level that is relevant to actual robotic and human mission applications. Because ISRU hardware and systems have never been demonstrated or utilized before on robotic or human missions, architecture and mission planners and surface system hardware developers are hesitant to rely on ISRU products and services that are critical to mission and system implementation success. To build confidence in ISRU systems for future missions and assess how ISRU systems can best influence and integrate with other surface system elements, NASA, with international partners, are performing analog field tests to understand how to take advantage of ISRU capabilities and benefits with the minimum of risk associated with introducing this game-changing approach to exploration. This paper will describe and review the results of four analog field tests (Moses Lake in 6/08, Mauna Kea in 11/08. Flagstaff in 9/09; and Mauna Kea in 1/10) that have begun the process of integrating ISRU into robotic and human exploration systems and missions, and propose future ISRU-related analog field test activities that can be performed in collaboration with international space agencies.

Sanders, Gerald B.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Resource utilization during software development

This paper discusses resource utilization over the life cycle of software development and discusses the role that the current 'waterfall' model plays in the actual software life cycle. Software production in the NASA environment was analyzed to measure these differences. The data from 13 different projects were collected by the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and analyzed for similarities and differences. The results indicate that the waterfall model is not very realistic in practice, and that as technology introduces further perturbations to this model with concepts like executable specifications, rapid prototyping, and wide-spectrum languages, we need to modify our model of this process.

Zelkowitz, Marvin V.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Pneumatic Regolith Transfer Systems for In-Situ Resource Utilization

One aspect of In-Situ Resource Utilization (lSRU) in a lunar environment is to extract oxygen and other elements from the minerals that make up the lunar regolith. Typical ISRU oxygen production processes include but are not limited to hydrogen reduction, carbothermal and molten oxide electrolysis. All of these processes require the transfer of regolith from a supply hopper into a reactor for chemical reaction processing, and the subsequent extraction of the reacted regolith from the reactor. This paper will discuss recent activities in the NASA ISRU project involved with developing pneumatic conveying methods to achieve lunar regolith simulant transfer under I-g and 1/6-g gravitational environments. Examples will be given of hardware that has been developed and tested by NASA on reduced gravity flights. Lessons learned and details of pneumatic regolith transfer systems will be examined as well as the relative performance in a 1/6th G environment

Mueller, Robert P.↗
NASA NTRS2005

In Situ Resource Utilization Technology Research and Facilities Supporting the NASA's Human Systems Research and Technology Life Support Program

The NASA Microgravity Science program has transitioned research required in support of NASA s Vision for Space Exploration. Research disciplines including the Materials Science, Fluid Physics and Combustion Science are now being applied toward projects with application in the planetary utilization and transformation of space resources. The scientific and engineering competencies and infrastructure in these traditional fields developed at multiple NASA Centers and by external research partners provide essential capabilities to support the agency s new exploration thrusts including In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Among the technologies essential to human space exploration, the production of life support consumables, especially oxygen and; radiation shielding; and the harvesting of potentially available water are realistically achieved for long-duration crewed missions only through the use of ISRU. Ongoing research in the physical sciences have produced a body of knowledge relevant to the extraction of oxygen from lunar and planetary regolith and associated reduction of metals and silicon for use meeting manufacturing and repair requirements. Activities being conducted and facilities used in support of various ISRU projects at the Glenn Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center will be described. The presentation will inform the community of these new research capabilities, opportunities, and challenges to utilize their materials, fluids and combustion science expertise and capabilities to support the vision for space exploration.

Schlagheck, Ronald A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

In-Situ Resource Utilization Options for the Moon and Mars

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is key to enabling extended presence at exploration locations. NASA’s focus for ISRU to date has been human exploration locations: the Moon and Mars. Likewise the primary target for ISRU has been the production of mission consumables for propulsion and life support. Producing oxygen alone from minerals on the Moon or atmosphere on Mars can provide the majority of these consumables. However, accessing water at either location allows for full propellant production (fuel and oxidizer) as well as other applications (eg life support). Current and previous study efforts have looked at mission architectures and ISRU mass payback for these options. Studies have also identified gaps in information needed to design effective ISRU hardware and choose best architectures

In-Situ Resource Utilization↗
NASA NTRS2019

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Living off the Land on the Moon and Mars

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is the concept of using local resources at various destinations to provide products and services for robotic and human explorers. This idea of 'living off the land' has the potential of reducing reliance on earth to supply mission consumables such as propellants and life support consumables. Local resources include: water, oxygen, and metals within the surface soil material (regolith), atmospheric gases (eg CO2 on Mars), and the regolith material itself. ISRU systems involve physically and chemically extracting these resources and converting them into desired products.

In-situ resource utilization↗
NASA NTRS2005

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Experiments for Mars Exploration

In situ resource utilization can best be described as living off the land. In our case the land is the planet Mars. ISRU is based on the idea that some fraction of the consumables, life support and propellant materials do not have to be flown from earth. Rather, they can be manufactured or extracted from resources already present on Mars. The primary resources on Mars are the atmosphere, polar caps and regolith. The atmosphere of Mars is mostly carbon dioxide as shown in the table below. The proportion of oxygen on the other hand is quite small. Still, there is quite a bit of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere, but it is unfortunately tied up with carbon. Thus, one of the goals of ISRU is the separation of breathable oxygen from the carbon dioxide. Several means of separation have been proposed. We have begun experiments on another approach for production of oxygen with carbon monoxide as a useful by product. Our work on a CO2 separator is described later in this report. Regolith melting is another means of obtaining materials. Two materials of interest are iron and silicon. Iron oxide is plentiful on Mars and is of obvious importance for structural components. Silicon is the foundation of solid state devices. Power generation on Mars may be accomplished using silicon solar cells. There is discussion of the feasibility of in situ production of solar cells. This would require a means of extracting silicon from the regolith. We have conducted several experiments concerning melting and glassification of the Mars soil simulant. Other summer faculty fellows have tried various means of processing the stimulant material. These include furnace melting, microwave melting and laser ablation. We have conducted several furnace melting experiments in both air and carbon dioxide environments. We have also carried out experiments to test spark melting in a carbon dioxide atmosphere. These experiments suggest the possibility of using arc melting in a reducing atmosphere. It is important to keep in mind that we are working with a soil stimulant. Any simulant, no matter how chemically similar it is to Martian regolith, may differ in mineralogy. The underlying assumption in this work is that once a glass is formed, any differences between simulant and regolith are unimportant. The exact means of forming the glass do, however, depend on the mineralogy of the regolith. A sample return mission is required to help answer these questions.

Marone, Matt↗
NASA NTRS2017

Solar System Exploration Augmented by In-Situ Resource Utilization: Human Planetary Base Issues for Mercury and Saturn

Human and robotic missions to Mercury and Saturn are presented and analyzed with a range of propulsion options. Historical studies of space exploration, planetary spacecraft, and astronomy, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and industrialization all point to the vastness of natural resources in the solar system. Advanced propulsion benefitted from these resources in many ways. While advanced propulsion systems were proposed in these historical studies, further investigation of nuclear options using high power nuclear thermal and nuclear pulse propulsion as well as advanced chemical propulsion can significantly enhance these scenarios. Updated analyses based on these historical visions are presented. Nuclear thermal propulsion and ISRU enhanced chemical propulsion landers are assessed for Mercury missions. At Saturn, nuclear pulse propulsion with alternate propellant feed systems and Saturn moon exploration with chemical propulsion and nuclear electric propulsion options are discussed. Issues with using in-situ resource utilization on Mercury missions are discussed. At Saturn, the best locations for exploration and the use of the moons Titan and Enceladus as central locations for Saturn moon exploration is assessed.

Lunar↗