A Refreshingly Honest Look at ISRU for Missions to Moons and Mars

It's refreshing to have an honest conversation about human spaceflight. I've written here previously about my frustrations that future human spaceflight hype discredits missions and makes it harder for us in the space world to do our jobs. Spaceflight is difficult, expensive, and takes time. Well-intentioned promoters downplay these challenges, but reality backfires on them. I'm an idealist by nature, but when it comes to the business and technical challenges of space, I'm a realist bordering on skeptic. Show me the detailed plan, show me the money, and show me how the technology is already being developed and tested.

It has been a pleasure to delve into realistic human spaceflight architectures at the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute this week. Only by detailing, step-by-step, a feasible and affordable means of creating a sustainable path to humans living on another world (Earth's Moon, Mars' moons, Mars itself, etc.) with a business case for industry profit can we accomplish such a monumental task. Apollo to the Moon was a one-time effort in history which will not and arguably should not be repeated. For decades, many in the space industry have known that sustainability (settlement, colonization, pioneering, establishing a base or outpost, whatever you want to call it) is what is needed. But there has never been a consensus on how to do it.

In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is not a new concept but is surprisingly an under-appreciated and under-funded area of study. Instead of needing to bring all resources with us on a rocket from Earth to wherever we're going, it would save a lot of weight (which translates to fuel savings, which translates to money savings) to use the resources that exist in space already. Although it has been politically unpopular to say so for years, a heavy lift rocket such as the Space Launch System is likely not needed if we instead focus on ISRU.

To use two examples that we discussed today at BASI, if we can use lunar and/or Martian regolith (dirt) to create water and rocket fuel/propellant, we would not have to bring extra water and fuel with us on these missions. Existing water/ice H2O can be extracted from the regolith. Electrolysis can break H2O into hydrogen H2 and oxygen O2 which can be used as fuel. All that is needed is energy. On Mars, carbon dioxide CO2 is also available in the atmosphere for ,making fuel.

There are multiple unanswered questions that need to be studied in order to propose this course of action. How do we best mine this regolith, especially the icy regolith? Can and how do we break apart the regolith and ice to extract the elements needed? How much energy would it take? How pure does the water and fuel need to be? Can and how do we create a usable fuel? How much would we save launching from the Moon compared to launching from Earth with Earth's higher gravity? So many questions, too little done in experimentation!

Thankfully, planetary regolith experimentation is one of my things, and I find this all to be exciting questions to ponder and later to test. Unfortunately, so far there hasn't been an organized and collaborative effort. There are scattered teams working on ISRU at NASA centers, universities, and even a few commercial companies, but no one seems to be talking to each other in a productive way to move the field forward. Thankfully, building collaborations is also one of my things. Today's meeting was fun and I look forward to bringing together even more people to advance this effort and get things done!

Money is the main barrier, as it always is. Aside from NASA, I don't know of anyone willing to fund these efforts, and NASA money is scarce. Without much funding, ISRU demonstration progresses at a snail's pace and the concepts and technology won't be ready for prime time when missions are being planned. Of course, missions are also endlessly delayed, so this isn't urgent. Here's where my optimism returns: I believe that public-private partnerships will return humans to other worlds in my lifetime. In fact, I'm holding on to the dream that I'll be among the astronauts to walk on another planetary body. I'm working hard to do my little part to get us there in whatever way I can.

What can we do with lunar regolith? - NASA KSC, January 22, 2015

Mars Mission Imagining with the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute

Last August, my undergraduate alma mater Florida Institute of Technology announced the creation of the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute with Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and his son, Andy Aldrin. On Monday and Tuesday this week, I was excited to attend the inaugural Buzz Aldrin Space Institute Workshop with approximately 40 Florida Tech professors and invited guests. The topic of the workshop was the Aldrin Earth-Mars Cycler concept and, more generally, a human mission to Mars.

Buzz Aldrin opening up the workshop. - January 18, 2016

Buzz opened up the workshop on Monday morning discussing his cycler and his thoughts on spaceflight in general. I met Buzz three or four times previously and had heard him discuss the cycler, but this was the longest and most comprehensive talk I'd seen him give. His plan, Cycling Pathways to Occupy Mars, has evolved over the years and continues to evolve. I've read a few of the studies done to detail and analyze the plan, but I have more research to do in order to understand it all.

In brief, the cycler is a continuous motion spaceflight plan to periodically send cargo and crew to and from Earth and Mars, and also potentially tying in cis-lunar space, the Moon, and Mars' moon Phobos. The timeline, number of vehicles, number of astronauts, and even the types of vehicles used all seem to be in flux depending on studies being done. Buzz seems to be moving away from NASA's Space Launch System SLS (which he sees as a drain of money and wants to see defunded along with the International Space Station) and more toward commercial space industry utilization. Specifically mentioned were Bigelow Aerospace inflatable habitats. International co-operation also seemed to be a key component. The eventual plan is to establish settlements on Phobos and Mars.

The technical details don't appear to be fleshed out well enough to be a true mission architecture at this point. The concept is early-stage and needs refinement. Therefore, the current timelines stated are very optimistic. It's all a good start. In order for this concept to become a proposed mission, more work needs to be done. I look forward to seeing the concept progress.

The international relations need a lot of work. The presentations had countries closely partnering who hate each other (China and Japan, North and South Korea), close partners not working together (Japan and USA, Japan and Europe, China and Russia), and a Mars-interested country forgotten entirely (India). There was also a curious statement that the United States can't go to Mars without China. We've send robotic missions to Mars without China. We'll very likely need international partnerships for a human mission but not necessarily China. China would be a great space partner but I'm not seeing that happen anytime soon.

Most of the rest of the workshop were talks related to the theme in four categories: in-space systems; surface systems and operations; human factors, health, and safety; and international cooperation and public support. Talks included topics such as trajectories, regolith flow due to rocket plumes (similar to a project I did while in grad school), propulsion, autonomous maneuvering, magnetic shielding, habitat analogs and simulators, biomining, Martian terrain, teamwork, mental health (in Buzz's opinion, the #1 human factors concern), costs, and public outeach. Some discussions took unexpected turns. Regarding the mental health talk, I've never heard prisoners of war discussed at a space talk before!

The last few hours of the workshop were break-out session discussions in small groups. I took notes and ended up later presenting for the surface systems and operations group. We covered a lot ground but there's so much more to discuss! It really got me thinking.

The workshop also included dinner on Monday evening. My husband took care of the baby all day Monday and Tuesday, so I took Josephine to dinner with me. She met her first two astronauts: Buzz Aldrin and Sam Durrance. Buzz's 86^th birthday is today so we celebrated on Monday (the day after my birthday). It was a great opportunity to get to know everyone and exchange ideas. I'm pleased to have been involved and look forward to what BASI creates in the future.

Happy birthday, Buzz! cheer Josephine and I from the back - January 18, 2016

Josephine meets her first Moonwalker - January 18, 2016