On Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, which rises more than 13,000 feet above
sea level, there is a mid-level base facility where scientists can pretend they
are on the moon. Hawaii's volcanic terrain, soil and remote environment provide
an ideal environment for testing instruments and equipment that someday may be
used by astronauts at a lunar base.
Recently, a team of scientists working for the Pacific
International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) demonstrated its first
field test for NASA's In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Project. Research
Operations Manager John Hamilton supported the mission
simulation to show how astronauts will be able to prospect for resources on
the moon to make their own oxygen, fuel and water from lunar rocks and soil. A
key motivation of these experiments is the fact that almost half the moon, by
weight, is made
of oxygen.
Representatives from four NASA space centers (Johnson,
Kennedy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Glenn Research Center) were at the test
site. Engineers from the Canadian and German space agencies also were at the
site, as were representatives from Carnegie Mellon University, Lockheed Martin,
and Michelin North America - making this field test a true global effort.
The crew convened at a small campsite located at the bottom of
a rough and narrow four-wheel-drive road. For some, this field test was their
first chance to meet and work with their colleagues outside of a lab. Much of
the equipment had been developed by teams working in different locations.
During the two week field test, the crew worked through complications that
arose as the different pieces of hardware were brought together for the first
time.
Strong winds had been gusting for days, reaching up to 45
mph. Most of the crew was bundled in protective clothing, with eye protection,
dust masks, large hats, ear plugs and gloves. Any area left exposed would be covered
in a layer of gritty dust, as was the large platter of papayas, pineapple and other
exotic fruit the scientists had brought in from Hilo. Although wind will never be
an issue on the moon, the dust added an unexpected level of realism to the
operation.
"We know we have to do deal
with lunar dust," said Jerry Sanders, ISRU Project Manager at NASA's
Johnson Space Flight Center. "We just didn't know we had to deal with it
right now!"
Moon Tools
The type of dust that attracted the engineers to Hawaii is
called "tephra," a fine, powder-like material that is ejected during a
volcanic eruption. Tephra works well in the prototype chemical processing units
because it mimics the dust
found on the moon.
A NASA-developed rover called SCARAB showed how a
prospecting rover could dig beneath the dusty lunar surface to process soil in
order to extract oxygen. A similar rover on the moon could look for water ice
and volatile gases such as hydrogen, helium and nitrogen in the permanently
shadowed craters of the moon's poles.
Larger systems could produce oxygen from greater quantities
of moon soil. Roxygen (developed by NASA) and the Precursor In Situ Resource
Utilization Lunar Oxygen Testbed, or PILOT (developed by Lockheed Martin) both
feature a hydrogen reduction system that can produce and store oxygen from soil.
"We're trying to make the lunar outposts more
self-sustaining," explained Tom Simon, head of the OPTIMA program at NASA's
Johnson Space Flight Center, which is overseeing the development of the PILOT
and ROxygen test units. "We want to produce oxygen, but we also want to
extract oxygen from the regolith so that we can combine it with what's left of
the residual hydrogen from the descent tanks and make water. Our goal is to never
send a tank of oxygen or a tank of water to the moon."
During this field test, a robotic excavator, similar in size
and weight to those currently exploring the planet Mars, showed how soil could
be extracted and delivered to the ROxygen system. Also tested was an excavator
that uses a bucket drum to collect and deliver soil to the PILOT system.
"It's one thing to test these instruments in the
laboratory," said Hamilton, "but that really doesn't tell you how it will
perform during a lunar mission. Our challenge is to replicate those conditions
as closely as possible to ensure that the test results will be a true
reflection of how these instruments will perform on the moon."
Advanced Life Support
NASA's lunar exploration plan says that on-site lunar
resources could generate about one to two metric tons of oxygen per year,
enough to support four to six people annually. Since it takes about 100 kilograms
(kg) of soil to get 1 kg of oxygen, team leaders are looking at electrostatic
and magnetic separation techniques to possibly concentrate the soil and
increase the production rate. Next June, for example, testing will begin on a
process that could potentially draw as much as 10 or 20 kg of oxygen out of every
100 kg of soil.
Other concepts tested at the PISCES test site included a new
lunar wheel developed by Michelin North America, a sample coring drill
developed by the Northern Center for Advanced Technology in Canada, and a night
vision camera developed by Neptec for navigation and drill site selection. The
wheel has plastic spokes that can absorb shocks, prevent flats and give better
traction. The coring drill is a small unit that can autonomously dig beneath
the surface without any "down-the-hole" electric components.
"We hope to make sure that we are not missing any process
steps," said Simon. "We are just getting a handle on where our starting point
is based on the precursors. This equipment will get smaller and more compact
each and every year."
The Canadian Space Agency is also contributing a utility
support vehicle for personnel and hardware transportation, and the German Space
Agency is developing an autonomous mole drill, which can burrow deep beneath
the surface to search for water or other resources.
Frank Schowengerdt, director of PISCES, explains that the
Center uses state funding and working agreements from public and private
partners, including several universities, to involve students from around the
world in space research. "In the next two years, PISCES will conduct research
and testing on the Big Island, and we will be major contributors to the space
exploration programs of several countries planning missions to the moon,
including the United States."
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