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Lunar Cruiser: JAXA and Toyota name their rover

JAXA/Toyota Lunar Cruiser. Credits: Toyota

In a recent press release, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota announced that they will name their crewed pressurized rover “Lunar Cruiser”. There have been some updates since we initially covered this topic. For instance, work this year progressed on simulations modeling power and heat dissipation while driving and the use of virtual reality to determine the layout of equipment in the vehicles’ cabin. In addition there have been discussions among over 100 partners in various industries of a “future lunar surface-based society” in an effort to “…gather the knowledge, experience and technological capabilities of enterprises from across a variety of industries in their attempt to realize their dream of sustaining continuous activities on the surface of the moon…”

Hopefully “Team Japan”, as the consortium is called, will take into consideration mitigation of the risks caused by lunar dust in the design and use studies of the Lunar Cruiser, as discussed in my presentation at the Moon Society’s Lunar Development Conference. At some point we hope to see the Lunar Cruiser navigating the network of roads that will hopefully be constructed as proposed by the Space Development Network. It may look like this:

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The business of asteroid mining

APS-1, an asteroid prospecting satellite conducting a spectral survey of 5000 Near Earth Asteroids (NEA). Credits: Asteroid Mining Corporation.

The Asteroid Mining Corporation wants to open the resources of the solar system toward a brighter interplanetary future. AMC claims that it does not need to mine an asteroid to be commercially successful, at least initially. The small start up proposes a practical transitional approach based on incremental successes to pay the bills while capitalizing on technological innovations to achieve the ultimate goal of mining an asteroid.

They plan to start with a remote sensing mission called Asteroid Prospecting Satellite (APS-1) to survey Near Earth Asteroids (NEA) to identify which are the most viable candidates for mining. AMC will then sell this data to customers interested in their own mining operations.

The next mission would be an Asteroid Exploration Probe (AEP-1) capable of visiting multiple targets and including a small landing probe to survey the mineralogical, metallurgical and molecular constituents of the most promising high platinum bearing Asteroids identified by APS-1, and test mining equipment.

AEP-1, an asteroid exploration probe visiting a promising NEA to confirm mineral content and test mining equipment. Credits: AMC.

The ultimate goal of AMC’s effort is the worlds first asteroid mining mission called Asteroid Mining Probe (AMP-1) designed to extract 20 tons of platinum. The AMP-1 spacecraft would be marketed to other customers around the world and would help establish the infrastructure for an extraterrestrial economy.

AMP-1, Earth’s first commercial asteroid mining mission. Credits: AMC
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EBIOS: toward closed-loop life support for space settlement

Artist rendering of EBIOS Experimental BIOregenerative Station. Credits: Interstellar Lab

Interstellar Lab has a mission to help build a future full of life on earth and beyond. To get started, the company plans modular villages on Earth designed as sealed facilities with environmental control and life support systems. EBIOS space-inspired communities will combine architecture, engineering, product design along with international collaboration in environmental science, agriculture, biochemistry, psychology and other disciplines. Each EBIOS will be a hospitality science center open to the public as well as scientists to facilitate awareness and needed research for self-sustaining space settlements. The company is developing methods and simulation software for integrated food production, water and waste systems to support human life in any environment.

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Propellant production on Mars

Schematic of a Mars settlement methane production system for a single SpaceX Starship over a period of two years. Electrolysis and hydrogen storage are off the shelf. Sabatier reactor needs to be developed. Credits: Michel Lamontagne / marspedia.org

Early missions to Mars such as Robert Zubrin’s Mars Direct architecture will require propellant production for the trip home. Methane can be produced in situ on the red planet’s surface through the basic chemical reaction CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O. A French chemist named Paul Sabatier discovered back in 1897 that this reaction could be facilitated by a nickel catalyst in the presence of hydrogen and carbon dioxide at elevated temperatures. Since water ice is present on Mars, hydrogen could be produced though electrolysis of water. Combining these two reactions into a methane production system, Michel Lamontagne has provided a schematic of the whole process on marspedia.org. By design, the SpaceX Starship uses methane for fuel. The company may want to prioritize development of a flight-ready Sabatier reactor for this system to enable the transportation infrastructure needed for supplying a settlement until it can become self sufficient.

Artist rendering of a SpaceX Starship lifting off near a Mars settlement. Credits: SpaceX / Flickr

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Lunar Farming

Layout of a potential subsurface lunar farm. Credits: International Space University and University of South Australia

A report called Lunar Agriculture, Farming for the Future was published this year by an international team of 27 students participating in the Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program 2020 at the International Space University held at the University of South Australia. The report outlines the design of an early stage lunar farm housed in either partially or fully subsurface enclosures to mitigate risks from radiation, micrometeorite bombardment and extreme temperature swings. The settlement would be located near one of the Moon’s poles to take advantage of nearly constant exposure to sunlight and access to lunar ice.

The stated mission of the project was:

“To recommend and outline a vision for sustainable lunar agriculture that can suport the nutritional requirements of humans and allow them to thrive.”

The choice of crops were selected based on nutritional value as well as physiological and psychological needs. They included a variety of plants such as tomatoes, carrots, garden cress, sweet potatoes, soybeans, peanuts, rice, and oyster mushrooms. The team also included cloudberry cell cultures and insects (crickets) for protein on the menu.

Management of the settlement was envisioned to be governed by an international authority that would hew to the Outer Space Treaty.

Just for fun, compare this report to the article “Farming on the Moon” published 29 years ago in Volume 2 No. 3 of Space Colonization Progress available in the Vintage Section.

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Lunar regolith beneficiation: a review of the latest research

Artist impression of a moon base. Credits: ESA

In the July Issue of Planetary and Space Science there is a summary of research on beneficiation, the process used for separation of minerals from waste in lunar regolith to prepare feedstock for chemical reactions to produce oxygen. One of the most commonly studied processes is hydrogen reduction of ilmenite (FeTiO3), a mineral abundant in the lunar maria. This type of research is critical to prepare for situ resource utilization (ISRU) needed for lunar settlements.

Benefication processes use differences in physical properties (e.g., density, electromagnetic characteristics) to manipulate materials, most commonly (especially on Earth) with water to facilitate separation. This is not practical in space environments where large scale water use will be more challenging then on Earth. On the Moon, dry techniques such as magnetic or electrostatic process are better suited to this application. The authors describe the physics behind the beneficiation process for ISRU in the lunar environment and survey the research performed thus far on these methods with interesting recommendations for further studies.

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Life in space

Artists rendering of the LIFE™ Habitat. Credits: Sierra Nevada Corporation

In a press release on August 10, Sierra Nevada Corporation announced it is continuing to advance it’s Large Inflatable Fabric Environment (LIFE) habitat under Phase 3 of NASA’s Next Step-2 public-private partnership to further commercial development of deep space exploration capabilities.

The company’s CEO, Fatih Ozmen, said “Our habitat design is so unlike any other that it truly demonstrates SNC’s technology ingenuity and innovation. We are excited to continue our support of human exploration in low-Earth orbit, for the Artemis lunar missions, and eventually missions to Mars, making space accessible and affordable.”

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Lava Hive: ISRU Mars habitat

Stepwise illustration of the casting process to produce the Lava Hive; (1) deposition of foundation base, (2) regolith is gathered and sintered into a flow channel, (3) molten basalt from the sand/regolith is poured into the channel and allowed to solidify, (4) the next layer of regolith is spread across, and another channel sintered, (5) layer by layer the structure is constructed, (6) loose, un-sintered regolith is excavated from the structure, revealing the completed dome. Credits Aidan Cowley, et al.*

In a paper posted on Academia.edu, the 3rd prize winner for the 2015 NASA 3D Printed Mars Habitat Centennial Challenge called Lava Hive is described by a team* of European researchers. The habitat is produced by additive manufacturing via a ‘lava-casting’ construction technique and utilizing recycled spacecraft structures. Innovations include ‘re-use’ of discarded landing vehicles as part of the central habitat, 3D printed adjacent structures connected to the central habitat and use of a novel ‘LavaCast’ process to fabricate solid structures resistant to radiation and thermal cycling.

Illustration of the Lava Hive. The central habitat core is shown with the smaller 3D printed satellite structures clustered around it. Credits: René Waclavicek, LIQUIFER Systems Group, 2015

The Lava Hive Mars settlement has a number of advantages including a modular design with the ability to expand or adapt to changing mission requirements while “living off the land” with a simple ISRU process utilizing Martian soil, thereby reducing the amount of mass that would need to be launched from Earth.

* Authors of this paper are: Aidan Cowley, Barbara Imhof, Leo Teeney, René Waclavicek, Francesco Spina, Alberto Canals, Juergen Schleppi, Pablo Lopez Soriano

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Dome: an innovative Martian base concept

Image of Dome during the day. Credits: InnSpace

InnSpace, a team of space dreamers in Poland has developed a Mars base concept called “Dome” which was selected among the best projects entered in the First Colony on Mars competition, organized as part of the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival.

The innovative design uses shape memory materials that respond to the significant temperature swings on Mars. Adjusting to the daily extremes, petal-shaped portions of the dome extend toward the base center providing exposure to natural light while creating an enclosure for additional space and radiation shielding. The moving sections include self- cleaning solar panels.

Once the sun goes down, the petals return to their initial location adding insulation to the habitat during the cold of night.

Creative use of technology envisioned by InnSpace and others applied to the extremes of off-Earth environments will be essential for space settlement.

Image of Dome at night with central petals retracted. Credit: InnSpace
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Lava tubes big enough for large space settlements on the Moon and Mars

Image of Lava tubes on the surface of Mars as photographed by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/G Neukum / NewScientist

Space advocates have long speculated that lava tubes on the Moon or Mars would provide an ideal protective enclosure for space settlements. The benefits include protection from radiation, micrometeorite bombardment, temperature extremes…the list goes on. Now, in a study published in Earth-Science Reviews, researchers at the the Universities of Bologna and Padua have found that lava tubes on these worlds could be 100 to 1000 times larger then on Earth, because of their lower gravity and the resultant effect on volcanism. Such roomy and stable subsurface chambers would be ideal for spacious space settlements.

Image of Olympus Town, a fictional colony built inside a lava tube on Mars from the National Geographic series of the same name. Credits: Framestore / Wired