In situ resource utilization

In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.)According to NASA, "in-situ resource utilization will enable the affordable establishment of extraterrestrial exploration and operations by minimizing the materials carried from Earth.Applications include its use in life support, either directly for drinking, for growing food, producing oxygen, or numerous other industrial processes, all of which require a ready supply of water in the environment and the equipment to extract it.Where there is some level of atmosphere, such as on Mars, water can be extracted directly from the air using a simple process such as WAVAR.[citation needed] Rocket propellant production has been proposed from the Moon's surface by processing water ice detected at the poles.Alternatively, it may be possible to heat water in a nuclear or solar thermal rocket,[4] which may be able to deliver a large mass from the Moon to low Earth orbit (LEO) in spite of the much lower specific impulse, for a given amount of equipment.SpaceX has suggested building a propellant plant on Mars that would use this process to produce methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen (O2) from sub-surface water ice and atmospheric CO2.For example, studies employing artificial Mars soil mixed with epoxy resin and tetraethoxysilane, produce high enough values of strength, resistance, and flexibility parameters.[14] Since this can be simulated on Earth, these proposals are relatively simple to implement, though it is by no means certain that NASA or the ESA will favour this approach over a more conventional direct mission.The usefulness of this reaction is that—as of 2008[update], when the availability of water on Mars was less scientifically demonstrated—only the hydrogen (which is light) was thought to need to be brought from Earth.[16] As of 2018[update], SpaceX has stated their goal of developing the technology for a Mars propellant plant that could use a variation on what is described in the previous paragraph.The magnetite/wustite redox cycle was first proposed for solar application on earth by Nakamura,[26] and was one of the first used for solar-driven two-step water splitting.[42] One particular processing technique is to use fluorine brought from Earth as potassium fluoride to separate the raw materials from the lunar rocks.This process has recently been made much more practical by the discovery of significant amounts of hydrogen-containing regolith near the Moon's poles by the Clementine spacecraft.[citation needed] Ceres is further out than Mars, with a higher delta-v, but launch windows and travel times are better, and the surface gravity is just 0.028 g, with a very low escape velocity of 510 m/s.
ISRU reverse water gas shift testbed (NASA KSC)
ISRU Pilot Excavator – A NASA project
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