Tests and technology development push in-situ resource utilization forward
By David Dickson and Robert Moses|December 2024
The Space Resources Technical Committee advocates affordable, sustainable human space exploration using nonterrestrial natural resources to supply propulsion, power, life-support consumables and manufacturing materials.
In July, NASA stopped development of its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, which was to prospect the lunar south polar region for water and other volatile resources. NASA attributed its decision to projected cost increases related to lander delays and other budget considerations in its Science Mission Directorate portfolio. NASA released a request for information for industry proposals to take over VIPER, which it was assessing as of November.
In August, the NASA ISRU Pilot Excavator, IPEx, completed a five-day Technology Readiness Level 5 milestone, during which it operated around the clock in a simulated lunar autonomy testbed at the Swamp Works lab at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with operators monitoring from a remote-control room. IPEx completed the full mission, which included 334 excavation cycles (equivalent to 10,000 kilograms of excavated regolith), some 58 kilometers of driving, and 35 autonomous dockings to a simulated wireless charger.
In April, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio, with Concordia University in Canada, flew the Ultrasonic Blade Experiment Rack payload aboard two parabolic flights to investigate tool force-reduction capabilities of resonantly vibrating tools in lunar regolith simulant. While aboard the G-FORCE-ONE aircraft operated by Zero-G Corp., researchers studied the insertion of a blade resonantly vibrating at 20 kilohertz and assessed the impact on observed forces on the blade at lunar and Martian gravities, with and without active vibration of the blade. The work is part of an effort to develop next-generation technologies for exploration and resource extraction on the moon and Mars.
In June, two teams were awarded $1.5 million in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge. Terra Engineering of California took home the top prize for its Fracture rover, a potential solution for autonomous lunar excavation. Starpath Robotics of California earned second place for its multifunctional rover designed for mining and hauling. The design included a drum barrel scraping mechanism that would allow the robot to mine material quickly, robustly and efficiently.
In April, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Blue Origin to receive a Revolutionizing Ore to Steel to Impact Emissions contract to develop technologies for reducing the ecological impact of terrestrial steel production. Blue Origin received $1.1 million for its Ouroboros reactor, which the company is developing to produce high-purity iron from low-quality ores with zero greenhouse gas emissions. In July, startup Interlune of Washington received a contract award in July through NASA’s TechFlights solicitation to develop its technology for extracting lunar volatiles, including helium-3.
In April, researchers at McGill University in Canada, the University of Texas at El Paso and Seoul National University completed a conceptual design of rocket engines that run on regolith-derived propellants, such as oxygen, metal alloys and sulfur obtained from lunar regolith. Also in April, the University of Central Florida opened two large-scale regolith simulant testbeds for testing of lunar rovers and other equipment, with optional gravity offloading provided via an overhead crane. This testbed hosted the qualifying rounds of the 2024 NASA Lunabotics robotic mining competition and will host the 2025 qualifiers. In August, Sierra Space completed thermal vacuum tests of the Carbothermal Oxygen Production Reactor at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, demonstrating the reduction of a single regolith melt by methane and measurement of produced carbon dioxide. In November, the Colorado School of Mines opened a 100-square-meter lunar testbed, funded by a NASA LuSTR grant and available for commercial technology development.
Contributors: Phillip Abel, Anthony Colaprete, Chris Dreyer, Amelia Grieg, Michael Hecht, Shaspreet Kaur, Jared Long-Fox, George Lordos, Erin Rezich, Evgeny Shafirovich, Laurent Sibille and Paul Van Susante
