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A vision for industry on the Moon

Credits: Michael Nayak / Air University Press

Air University Press, the academic publisher of the U.S. Air Force, this last July published the The Commercial Lunar Economy Field Guide: A Vision for Industry on the Moon in the Next Decade, edited by Michael Nayak. The document presents a revolutionary blueprint for the transformation of the Moon from a scientific curiosity into a vibrant, self-sustaining industrial marketplace in the 2030s. Central to this vision is DARPA’s 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) initiative, which seeks to establish integrated, interoperable infrastructure that lowers the barrier to entry for all lunar users. This may help with execution of the Trump Administration’s recent Executive Order (EO) which aims to establish a space policy “… that will extend the reach of human discovery, secure the Nation’s vital economic and security interests, unleash commercial development, and lay the foundation for a new space age”. The Field Guide and the EO are not perfectly aligned but the former provides an architectural blueprint to implement the strategic mandate prescribed by the latter. The EO provides the authority and deadlines (e.g., returning to the Moon by 2028), while the Field Guide provides the technical and economic pathways (LunA-10) to achieve those goals in a manner that will add value for taxpayers. While diving into the specifics of the Field Guide, along the way I’ll highlight how it will help implement the EO.

A Strategic Vision Beyond Unsustainable Symbolism

For decades, lunar exploration has followed a “Flags and Footprints” paradigm—symbolic, government-funded missions that are entirely self-reliant, bringing every gram of power, water, and data storage from Earth. The Field Guide argues that this approach, while scientifically valuable and a display of national pride, is economically unsustainable at the current “million-dollar-per-kilogram” cost of delivery. This is in alignment with the EO which calls for enhancing cost-effectiveness of exploration architectures while establishing initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030 to ensure a sustained American presence on the Moon, which will lay the groundwork for the exploration of Mars.

The Role of LunA-10

LunA-10 serves as a catalyst to seed the foundational nodes of a future economy on the Moon and in cislunar space. Similar to how DARPA fostered development of the internet and GPS, LunA-10 identifies “scalable nodes” where government investment can accelerate commercial capability. The goal is to move toward a model where NASA and commercial industry can purchase utilities—like power and data—as services, rather than owning the hardware.

Four Economic Ages of the Moon

The Field Guide identifies four distinct stages of development for the lunar economy:

  1. The Exploration Age (2025–2030): Characterized by one-of-a-kind, government-backed missions. Infrastructure is limited, confined to individual landers which are non-extendable.
  2. The Foundational Age: An era of “trail-building” where lunar surface transportation infrastructure is built out and users begin to subscribe to pilot services for power and communications.
  3. The Industrial Age (Target: 2035): Scaling through commoditization. Multi-service hubs provide consolidated thermal and power management, and large-scale manufacturing begins.
  4. The Jet Age: A state of self-sufficiency where In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) will produce services such a propellent depots (lunar hydrogen and oxygen) to enable frequent, low-cost “rocket hop” transport across the lunar surface, servicing permanent settlements and supporting missions headed for deep space.

Pillars of Commercial Lunar Infrastructure

To achieve this vision, the Field Guide details several critical technology sectors that must transition from their experimental phases to full scale industrialization.

Power and Thermal as a Service

In the Exploration Age, not being able to survive the 14-day lunar night is a primary mission-killer. LunA-10 proposes Infrastructure Hubs—massive solar power towers, some taller than the Statue of Liberty, placed at the peaks of eternal light at the Moon’s south pole, a concept that SSP has explored previously. Here is where the Field Guide diverges a bit from the EO, as the latter calls for surface nuclear reactors as a source of reliable power, prioritizing this initiative to be implemented by 2030. The authors of the Lunar Power chapter were operating under the assumption that NASA’s nuclear Fission Surface Power project would not produce hardware soon based on current TRLs, so this source of power was outside the LunA-10 timeline. Of course solar power could be complementary to nuclear power sources. With this approach these hubs would include:

  • Multi-Service Nodes: The power towers do more than collect solar energy; they serve as “Swiss army knives,” on the Moon providing wireless power transmission, communication relays, and hosting Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) signals.
  • Thermal Microgrids: Just as Earth-based buildings use central HVAC systems, lunar thermal hubs will manage heat for multiple users. They can recycle waste heat from high-energy activities (like mining) to keep nearby robotic assets warm during the lunar night, significantly reducing the mass each mission must carry for thermal survival. This aligns with the EO’s call to deploy nuclear reactors on the Moon which will need to dissipate waste heat that can be put to use.

Logistics: The Lunar Rail Network

Transportation is the lifeblood of any economy. Initially, lunar rovers will be slow and inefficient; moving the cargo of a single heavy lander over long distances could take thousands of hours.

  • The Lunar Railroad: The Field Guide details a plan for a lunar rail network that dramatically increases the speed and volume of cargo transport.
  • Multi-Use Corridors: These rail lines would serve as integrated infrastructure conduits. Alongside the tracks, corridors would include wired power lines, data cables, and pipelines for gas and/or fluid transport. This “bundling” of services reduces the amortized cost for every company operating along the route.

Mining and the Metal Ecosystem

Sustainable settlement requires moving away from Earth-dependency through ISRU.

Conceptual illustration of the Lunar OXygen In-situ Experiment (LOXIE) Production Prototype, part of the Pioneer Astronautics (now part of Voyager Space Holdings) MMOST system. Credits: Mark Berggren / Pioneer Astronautics
  • The Circular Economy: The vision is a “reduce, reuse, recycle” ecosystem where expended rocket stages or other used assets are repurposed for storage and scrap metal is forged into new products on-site.

Orbital Infrastructure: Cislunar Supply Hubs

The economy extends beyond the Moon’s surface into cislunar space.

  • Space Harbors: Orbital aggregation hubs would act as deep-space analogs to terrestrial maritime ports hosting multiple value streams. Services would include rocket gas stations featuring robotic propellent transfer of stored hydrogen, oxygen, and methane; consolidated edge computing centers providing high-performance computing as a service such as autonomous docking calculations or mineral analysis by the hub’s more powerful servers; commodity sharing allowing arriving spacecraft to plug into the harbor to share excess solar power or fuel. By centralizing these activities, a space harbor would lower the mass of payloads a company must launch from Earth, effectively lowering the barrier to entry for any new commercial lunar venture. Arkisys has already begun to develop this type of infrastructure with The Port.
Conceptual illustration of The Port, a modular orbital platform under development by Los Alamitos, California-based Arkisys that will provide services for space assets such as refueling, battery recharging, thruster installation, repair, etc., laying the ground work for large-scale space harbors. Credit: Arkisys
  • Satellite “Retirement”: This model moves away from the “one-and-done” satellite paradigm toward a symbiotic system where older assets are repurposed as sharable resources contributing to the growth of the hub.

Economic and Legal Enablers

The Field Guide emphasizes that technology alone cannot build an economy; a transparent and predictable market framework will be needed.

Property Rights and Law

Under current international law (i.e. the Outer Space Treaty), nations cannot “own” the Moon. However, the Field Guide argues for “Continued Use” and “Allocated” rights, where companies can have exclusive control over the specific resources they extract and the infrastructure they build. The Artemis Accords provide the foundation for global consensus on these principles.

The Commodities Exchange and Board of Trade

To attract serious private capital, the Moon needs market transparency. The Field Guide recommends establishing a Space Commodities Exchange and a Lunar Board of Trade to define the quality and value of lunar resources like oxygen and regolith. This would allow for trading, hedging, and financing similar to terrestrial commodities like gold or oil.

Interoperability via the LOGIC Consortium

A major risk to a nascent economy is vendor lock-in where different companies’ hardware cannot communicate or share power without significant switching costs. To prevent this, DARPA established the Lunar Operating Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium (LOGIC). LOGIC focuses on creating voluntary consensus standards for docking ports, power connectors, and communication protocols, ensuring the Moon becomes an open platform rather than a fragmented collection of proprietary systems.

Artist’s concept of commercial lunar infrastructure that would benefit from accelerating interoperability standards via LOGIC. Credits: DARPA

The Path to 2035

The Commercial Lunar Economy Field Guide concludes that while the engineering challenges of the Moon are “DARPA-hard,” they are solvable. By 2035, the goal is to reach break-even where the economy becomes self-sustaining and the risk for private investors is sufficiently lowered.

Successfully building this infrastructure will do more than just unlock the Moon; it will provide the operational experience, fuel and infrastructure (via ISRU) necessary for humanity to expand throughout the Solar System and eventually, to the stars. The Moon will no longer be just a destination for flags and footprints, but a key stepping stone on the path to becoming a spacefaring civilization.

Execution of the EO in Alignment with the Field Guide

To implement the Executive Order using the principles of the Field Guide the following actions should be prioritized with the caveat that the deadlines specified in the EO will be challenging to meet using many of the technologies in the Field Guide, given they’re current TRLs. Still, regardless of aspirational timelines that may be pushed out, the actions below will ensure that when commercial lunar development comes together in the 2030s, it will be cost effective and sustainable.

Action 1: Immediate Transition to Lunar Commodity Contracts

  • The Problem: Procurement of traditional government-owned hardware is slow and expensive.
  • Implementation: Within the 180-day window mandated by the EO, NASA and the Dept. of Commerce should issue Multi-Service RFPs. Instead of buying a rover, the government should buy “Kilometers of Cargo Transport” or “Megawatts of Night-time Power” from commercial infrastructure nodes described in the Field Guide.
  • Lead Agency: NASA (Commercial Moon to Mars Program).

Action 2: Deploy the Lunar Rail Pilot Program

  • The Problem: The EO’s 2030 call for a permanent outpost cannot be sustained long term by slow, battery-limited rovers.
  • Implementation: Accelerate the Field Guide’s Lunar Rail concept to connect the 2028 landing site to the 2030 outpost location. This would create an industrial corridor that bundles multiple services, e.g. power, data, and transportation, to reduce the cost of individual missions. Such linear easements along railroads would serve as the logistical spine for moving massive cargo fostering economic development in accordance with the EO.
  • Lead Agency: DARPA (transitioning to Space Force/NASA).

Action 3: Codify the Lunar Board of Trade

  • The Problem: The EO seeks $50B in private investment, but investors need price certainty.
  • Implementation: Use the Field Guide’s framework to establish a Lunar Commodities Exchange. Define the “Lunar Standards” for oxygen and water purity. This allows private companies to “pre-sell” resources they will mine in the near future to finance their current operations.
  • Lead Agency: Department of Commerce (Office of Space Commerce).

Action 4: Integrate “Defense-by-Commerce” in Cislunar Space

  • The Problem: The EO calls for US superiority and threat detection in cislunar space.
  • Implementation: Equip the Field Guide’s Infrastructure Hubs with Space Situational Awareness (SSA) sensors. By hosting defense sensors on commercial power/comms nodes, the U.S. achieves the responsive and adaptive architecture required by the EO at a fraction of the cost of dedicated military satellites.
  • Lead Agency: U.S. Space Force.

Conclusion

The Commercial Lunar Economy Field Guide is a ready-made roadmap for implementation of the Whitehouse’s Executive Order on Ensuring American Space Superiority. By treating the Moon as an industrial zone the administration can meet the prescribed milestones through commercial leverage and ISRU rather than massive new government spending. Execution of the plan should focus on contractual reform—buying services from the infrastructure nodes as defined in the Field Guide. With power, comms and security systems in place, companies like Galactic Resource Utilization (GRU) Space can build hotels on the Moon starting in the early 2030s to house scientists, entrepreneurs and maybe even tourists as described in their white paper.

Artist rendering of GRU Space’s hotel on the Moon. Credit: GRU Space
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Pale Red Dots on Mars

Conceptual illustration of two Pale Red Dot villages on Mars serviced by SpaceX Starships. Credits: Pale Red Dot Team*

Pale Red Dot is an acronym for Polis-based Architecture for the Long-term Exploration of the Red planet, with Exciting and Diverse Developmental Opportunities to Thrive. This concept, which was the first place winner of the NASA 2023 RASC-AL competition in the category of Homesteading Mars by a team* at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Resources Workshop, focuses on establishing a city-state with Earth-independence supporting extensive scientific exploration on Mars. NASA’s RASC-AL (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkages) competitions foster innovation of aerospace systems concepts, analogs, and technology by bridging gaps through university engagement.

This architecture envisions sending robotic precursor missions to Mars following experience gained from NASA’s Artemis program to survey sites, test technologies, and stockpile resources like water and propellant. Lets be honest up front that this paper is two years old and timelines for return to the Moon have been moved out. Predictions on milestones in the paper for this plan as described below should take these delays into account. With the current Trump administration the fate of Artemis program is evolving. There are many possibilities being proposed to streamline NASA’s plans, one of which by retired aerospace engineer and entrepreneur Rand Simberg, leverages public-private partnerships to get humans back to the moon. Keeping this in mind, when humans return to the lunar surface, Pale Red Dot would leverage the engineering knowledge gained from robotic landers and human missions used in Artemis or any subsequent initiative that emerges.

Next, in 2035 (at the earliest), robotic cargo SpaceX Starships would deliver approximately 5,800 tons of equipment consisting of habitats, nuclear microreactors, farming modules, manufacturing facilities, and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) systems. By 2040, two crewed Starships would transport 36 colonists to Mars to establish two closely located villages. Costs would be shared by nations that are signatories of the Artemis Accords, 56 and counting as of this post.

The study used a modelling approach that prioritized safety and crew health in design of the architectures, both in transportation and surface facilities. Relying heavily on NASA’s current career permissible limits for space radiation, exposure was minimized by splitting the crew among two Starships, each one adding a 71-ton 35cm polyethylene shield, and dashing to Mars within 113 days. Upon arrival, to guard against galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events, the initial surface habitats will have integrated 3m water tanks in their roofs for radiation shielding. The plans call for gradually building out radiation-proof underground tunnel habitats. Although not considered in this scenario, locating the settlements in a lava tube could be advantageous not only for ready-made radiation protection but thermal management as well.

The Pale Red Dot (PBD) architecture emphasizes robustness and thriving, rather than just survival, through substantial infrastructure supporting 36 crew members across two Martian villages. This includes extensive makerspaces and significant reliance on ISRU. The two nearby villages are designed to be energy-rich, water-rich, food-rich, time-rich, and capability-rich, with substantial self-rescue capabilities.

Diagram from Figure 4 in the paper depicting one of two villages of the Pale Red Dot architecture showing zone layout with modules for farms, habitation, mission utilization and makerspaces. Credits: Pale Red Dot Team*

The site chosen for the PRD settlements was based on a NASA Exploration Zone workshop in 2015. Called Deuteronilus Mensae, its situated near a glacier water source, in a hilly region that may be suitable for tunneling. More recent discoveries by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter, using its MARSIS radar, have revealed extensive water ice deposits up to 3.7 km thick beneath Mars’ equator in the Medusae Fossae Formation.

Extraction methods for sourcing in situ water were not addressed in the PRD architecture. This should not be a problem though as the communities could leverage methods that have already been validated, such as the RedWater System which could drill for, and collect, subsurface water ice.

The paper argues that such a large architecture, with its economies of scale and specialization, is crucial for mitigating the risks associated with a long-duration, minimally resupplied mission to Mars. Crew time modeling suggests that smaller missions with 12 or fewer people would not provide sufficient free surface traverse time for meaningful science and exploration. The estimated lifecycle cost for this campaign is $81 billion, with a peak annual cost of $6.6 billion.

The PRD concept highlights the potential for creating a true community on Mars with sufficient social complexity for humans to thrive. Furthermore, it proposes the geopolitically significant option of including crew members from every Artemis Accords signatory in the first human mission to Mars. Comprehensive details are provided on the dual-habitat architecture, concept of operations, mission control, technology roadmap, and risk burn-down plan.

* MIT Pale Red Dot Team Membership:

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Modeling an ISRU-based energy storage system for sustainable lunar electricity production

Illustration of a Lunar ISRU Energy Storage and Electrical Generation concept (not to scale). The system utilizes three heat transfer fluid circuits. The collection loop in the receiver tube is heated by sunlight from a field of mirrors during the lunar day and circulates to the thermal mass raising its temperature. Upon lunar nightfall, a discharge loop transfers heat from the thermal reservoir to the Stirling engine for electricity production. While the engine is running a thermal regulation loop dissipates heat through the radiator. Credits: system layout by Mario F. Palos and Ricard González-Cinca, modified to add component labels; lunar landscape by Grok 2

One of the difficulties of designing solar power systems for use on the Moon is the challenge of energy storage during the 14 day lunar night at lower latitudes far from the peaks of eternal light at the poles. Such systems would benefit from technology that leverages in situ resource utilization (ISRU) for this critical function rather then expensively transporting batteries from Earth. It would be ideal to model these systems prior to use via computer simulations to optimize the design before bending metal. In the journal Advances in Space Research, Spanish physicists Mario F. Palos and Ricard González-Cinca explore this approach in a paper that examines an ISRU-based system for energy storage and electricity generation.

The architecture of the proposed system, dubbed Lunar ISRU Energy Storage and Electrical Generation (LIESEG), collects solar energy during the lunar day via a mirror field to concentrate sunlight on a receiving pipe containing a heat transfer fluid (e.g. molten sodium). The heated fluid flows to a thermal mass raising the temperature of the energy reservoir. The resultant stored thermal energy from the reservoir is discharged through a second fluid loop used to drive a Stirling engine for electricity production during both day and night. A third heat rejection loop thermally regulates the system by transferring heat from the cold side of the heat engine to the radiator. This modular design balances efficiency and durability under extreme lunar conditions.

The ISRU implementation angle of the study emphasizes the use of lunar regolith and other local materials to minimize reliance on Earth-based supplies. This not only reduces launch costs but also aligns with long-term sustainability goals for lunar habitats.

To analyze the LIESEG system performance, simulations were carried out using EcosimPro software, a tool used by the European Space Agency in multiple aerospace applications, to assess power output, efficiency, and scalability. A comprehensive theoretical model based on the thermodynamics of the subsystems under lunar conditions was developed to analyze the energy flow and efficiency of the system. The study evaluated the specific power performance (power output divided by launch mass) of the system, highlighting its potential to be superior to other conventional methods like photovoltaic systems or nuclear reactors in terms of mass efficiency and sustainability. It also discusses the influence of key factors like the thermal conductivity of lunar regolith, the size and orientation of solar collectors, and the efficiency of the Stirling engine.

The authors conducted a detailed trade-off analysis of technologies, considering criteria like transportability, installation complexity, operational reliability, scalability, and lifespan. Solar collection and thermal conversion technologies were highlighted as critical components for achieving operational stability.

The proposed LIESEG system offers a promising approach for sustainable energy production on the Moon, potentially reducing reliance on Earth-launched resources and enabling longer, more autonomous missions. The system’s feasibility was demonstrated through computer modeling whose results show LIESEG to be practical for initial lunar missions with lower energy needs, as well as for later advanced bases requiring higher power outputs (up to 100 kWe and beyond). This research shows that a LIESEG system has merit for planning future development of energy infrastructure supporting initial lunar outposts and eventually, permanent settlements on the Moon.

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ESA launches the Second Space Resources Challenge

Conceptual illustration of lunar regolith extraction and beneficiation operations creating feedstock for an oxygen production factory on the Moon. Credits: Grok 2

The European Space Agency (ESA) on October 24 initiated their Second Space Resources Challenge. The Space Resources Challenge is an initiative aimed at stimulating innovation in the field of in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for lunar and potentially other planetary bodies’ development. Launched in partnership with the Luxembourg Space Agency and their joint European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC), the competition encourages participants from various backgrounds—including students, startups, and established companies—to develop technologies that can collect, process, and utilize resources on the Moon. The challenge focuses on extracting valuable resources like oxygen for human life support and rocket fuel, as well as metals for construction, from lunar regolith. By fostering a competitive environment, ESA seeks to advance technologies that could reduce the dependency on Earth-supplied materials, thereby making long-term lunar missions more economically viable. The competition not only aims to develop new ISRU technologies but also to build a community of innovators interested in the value of space resources, potentially leading to commercial opportunities in the burgeoning space economy.

Launched on October 24, the second Challenge will focus on extraction and beneficiation of lunar regolith, critical steps in establishing a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface. Teams have until February 20th 2025 to submit proposals. Competition winners can claim €500K for the best performing team and will be awarded a development contract for a feasibility study. A second place prize worth €250K will be awarded to the best team in the category of beneficiation.

The first Challenge, which targeted resource prospecting, took place in 2021 and featured a competition between robotic protypes in ESA’s Lunar Utilisation and Navigation Assembly (LUNA) facility, an advanced research and simulation center designed to support Europe’s efforts in lunar exploration. Located within ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, LUNA serves as a testing ground for technologies and systems intended for lunar missions. The facility includes a moon-like environment where various aspects of lunar landing, operations, and human habitation can be simulated.

The Second Resource Challenge will focus on:

  • Extraction: The collection, hauling and handling of lunar regolith. In LUNA this will be modeled using lunar simulant, which mimics the Moon’s soil. The problem to be solved in this area of the challenge involves designing robotic systems that can collect and transport material efficiently in the harsh lunar environment.
  • Beneficiation: a term adapted from the terrestrial mining industry, is the process whereby the economic value of an ore is improved by removing the gangue minerals, resulting in a higher-grade product. In the context of ISRU on the Moon, beneficiation will convert regolith into a suitable feedstock through particle sizing and mineral enrichment, preparing it for the next step in the value chain. On the Moon the next process could be extracting valuable resources like oxygen for life support and rocket fuel, and metals for construction or manufacturing, which will be essential for sustaining a long-term human presence on the Moon.

The technology development program will award the teams with the most innovative robotic systems that exhibit autonomy, durability, efficient handling and processing of regolith in the extreme conditions of vacuum, temperature extremes and dust expected in the lunar environment.

Alignment with Strategic Roadmap:

The Second Space Resources Challenge is a pivotal part of ESA’s Space Resources Challenge strategic roadmap to build out the ISRU Value Chain. The next phase of the program will focus on “Watts on the Moon”, i.e. reliable surface power sources for lunar operations. Subsequent phases will develop ISRU applications including extraction of oxygen and water for life support and rocket fuel, with the goal of sustainable in situ factories in the 2030s providing resource supply chains for settlements and the cislunar economy. Integrated systems downstream in the Value Chain, such as Pioneer Astronautics’ (now part of Voyager Space) Moon to Mars Oxygen and Steel Technology (MMOST) application to produce oxygen and metallic iron/steel from lunar regolith, are already under development.

Space Resources Challenge strategic roadmap depicting gradual progression of ISRU development activities. Challenges are planned to be solicited every three years. Credits: ESA

The Second Space Resources Challenge competition is a critical forward-thinking step in ESA’s plans for space development. By concentrating on the extraction and beneficiation of lunar regolith, ESA is not only preparing for the logistics of long-term lunar habitation but also setting a precedent for how future space missions might operate autonomously and sustainably. This challenge underscores ESA’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and the strategic use of space resources, paving the way for humanity’s next steps in the settlement of the Moon and other worlds in the Solar System.

Update October 2025: This month the challenge resulted in a field test at the LUNA facility. Eight teams demonstrated robotic systems designed to collect and process lunar regolith. The participating teams hailed from six countries including Canada, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom. A contract for detailed design development will be awarded by ESA next month to the most promising team, which could see flight hardware for mission to the Moon (timeline dependent on future funding).

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Offworld’s Prospector 1 mission to demonstrate ISRU on the Moon

Concept illustration of Offworld’s Prospector 1 Mobile Excavator. Credits: Dallas Bienhoff / Offworld, Inc.

At the intersection of AI, swarm robotics and mining technology lies the key to sustainable, affordable space development. Offworld, Inc. is on the cutting edge of this frontier with their suite of diverse robot species that when coordinated with collective intelligence, will enable sustainable in situ resource utilization (ISRU) thereby lowering the cost of establishing settlements on the Moon and beyond, while kickstarting a thriving off Earth economy. In a presentation to the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) Telecon on July 24, Space Systems Architect Dallas Bienhoff described Offworld’s plans for an ambitious demonstration mission called Prospector 1.

In April 2023, OffWorld Europe entered into an agreement with the Luxembourg Space Agency to collaborate on a Lunar ISRU exploration program commissioned by the European Space Agency. The multi-year initiative will develop a processing system focused on harvesting and utilizing lunar ice resources. The program will develop a Lunar Processing Module (LPM) to be integrated into a mobile excavator that will be launched to Moon’s south pole on the Prospector 1 mission currently scheduled for late 2027. The goal of Prospector 1 is to demonstrate the capability of processing icy lunar regolith to produce oxygen and hydrogen. The LPM when loaded with icy regolith will process the lunar soil to extract water, then via electrolysis produce oxygen and hydrogen. The module’s hopper is designed to receive up to 50 kg of regolith and batch process 2.5kg/hour. The unit will be housed on a mobile excavator massed at 2500 kg. Offworld has already completed TRL4 testing on the LPM in their Luxembourg office.

Offworld is evaluating several suppliers for delivery of their payload to the Moon. These include Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Lander, Astrobotic’s Griffin, Intuitive Machines NOVA-D and the SpaceX Starship.

The company is exploring a variety of options for generation of power for the mission. Of course landers provide some minimal power but not nearly enough for processing lunar regolith. One promising system under consideration is the Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT) under development by Astorbotic which will provide 10kw of power (only in sunlight). But wait, there’s more! Astrobotic announced this month that they were just awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award by NASA to develop a larger version of the array called VSAT-XL capable of delivering 50kw. Designed to track the sun, VSAT is ideal for location at the lunar south pole where the sun’s rays are at very low elevation and provide semi-permanent illumination on the rims of permanently shadowed craters.

Comparison of relative sizes of the two VSAT solar arrays. Credit: Astrobotic

Another innovative alternative is a power source called the Nuclear Thermionic Avalanche Cell (NTAC ) under development by Tamer Space, a company providing a range of power and construction resources for settlements on the Moon, the Cislunar economy and sustainable pioneering of Mars. The device is an electrical generator that converts nuclear gamma-ray photons directly to electric power in a compact, reliable package with high power density capable of long-life operation without refueling. NTAC can provide higher power levels (e.g. starting at 100kw) and is not dependent on the sun to enable operations through the lunar night should Offworld elect to locate their facility far from the Moon’s poles or in permanently shadowed regions. Tamer described their technology at the 2023 Space Resources Roundtable

Image of a research prototype of the Nuclear Thermionic Avalanche Cell: Credit: Tamer Space

After Propector 1, Offworld’s follow on plans envision a second Prospector 2 to be launched in the 2029 timeframe. This mission will ramp up capability to include multiple robot species such as an excavator, hauler, and processor. In addition, liquefaction will be added to the process stream (not just gaseous products) and pilot plant capabilities will be demonstrated to reduce risk for the next mission. In 2031, a formal pilot plant will be established with multiple excavators and haulers. The facility will have a fixed processing plant and storage facilities capable of producing tons of water, oxygen, and hydrogen. By the end of 2034, OffWorld plans to launch an industrial scale ISRU plant with output of 100s of tons of volatiles, elements and bulk regolith per year.

Bienhoff said at the conclusion of his presentation that Offworld’s long term vision for lunar operations include: “Industrial scale ISRU, 10s – 100s of tons of product per year – by product [I mean] that’s processed regolith, that’s oxygen, that’s hydrogen, that’s water, that’s perhaps metals. We plan to monetize or use every gram we excavate. That’s a tall order, but in order to have a thriving lunar community, we need to produce as much as we can on the Moon, for the Moon, before we think about exporting from the Moon.”

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Using energy from space to power in situ resource processing on the Moon

Conceptual illustration of a Lunar Power Station beaming power to facilities on the Moon for energy intensive in situ resource processing . Credit: Astrostrom GMBH

Settlements on the Moon will eventually need to “live off the land” via in situ resource utilization (ISRU). This approach is essential to make settlements economically feasible and self sustaining, obviating the need to expensively import materials up out of Earth’s gravity well. Before we can utilize resources in situ on the Moon we need to understand how to process them there. Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Toronto, Canada are developing technologies for in situ resource processing (ISRP) of lunar soil to produce useful materials, but they will need power. Lots of it.

In a paper presented last October at the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan, Waterloo Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Master of Science Candidate Connor MacRobbie and Team describe how a space-based solar power (SBSP) satellite in lunar orbit could provide the juice for several energy hungry processes that could generate consumables and building materials from lunar regolith.

The study includes a survey of the scientific literature on lunar regolith processing techniques under development, some with experimental results, that would benefit future lunar settlements. Using electrolysis, chemical reduction, pyrolysis and other reactions these methods can be used to extract metals, oxygen, water and other useful commodities from lunar regolith. The techniques have well established pedigrees on Earth, but will need further development for efficient operations on the Moon and will require very elevated temperatures. Thus, the need for an abundant power source like SBSP.

One such promising process is Molten Regolith Electrolysis (MRE). In this method, lunar soil is heated to the melting point in an electrolytic cell. When voltage is applied across the cathode and anode in the cell, the molten regolith decomposes into metal at the cathode and oxygen at the anode, both of which can be collected and stored for use by settlers. No inputs or materials are needed from Earth, only a local power source to melt the untreated regolith.

One of MacRobbie’s supervisors is Dr. John Wen, director of the Laboratory for Emerging Energy Research (LEER) at Waterloo. With the help of Wen and LEER, the Team developed a novel material processing method for MRE. In molten regolith solutions, the constituents and their oxides can be separated by an applied voltage enabling extraction from the solution. Because each individual oxide decomposes at different values, stepping the voltage will facilitate sequential removal and collection of the lunar soil constituents, e.g. iron, titanium, aluminum, silicon, and others; which can be utilized for building and manufacturing. The new method could reduce the cost of processing and provide purer end products. The Team will continue working with LEER on the design of the equipment toward proof of concept with small batches aiming for accurate and repeatable successive extractions of materials using MRE. The only remaining step would be to qualify flight-ready hardware for experiments on the Moon.

In another project LEER is investigating lunar regolith as an input to a power source in space for heating or manufacturing. The embedded metal oxides in lunar soil, when combined with a metal like aluminum, produce thermal energy via a thermite reaction. The aluminum could be sourced from defunct satellites in Earth orbit which has the added benefit of helping to address the orbital debris problem.

Other groups like Swiss-based Astrostom GMBH with their Greater Earth Lunar Power Station are already working on SBSP solutions to provide ample power for lunar surface settlements which could provide sufficient electricity for Waterloo’s ISRP technology. The Astrostom approach would place the power satellite at the L1 Earth-Moon Lagrange point, a location between the Earth and Moon at a distance of 60,000 km above lunar surface. Although not a gravitationally stable location, the station would could maintain a fixed point above a lunar ground station on the Moon’s nearside with minimal station keeping propulsion systems.

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Proposal for an International Lunar Resource Prospecting Campaign

Artist’s depiction of the NASA Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) locating and assessing the concentration of ice and other resources near the Moon’s South Pole. Credits: NASA / Daniel Rutter

NASA and space settlement advocates are justifiably excited about resources on the Moon, especially water ice known to be present in permanently shadowed regions (PSR) at the lunar poles, because of it’s potential as a source of oxygen and fuel that could be sourced in situ saving the costs of transporting these valuable commodities from Earth.  But how much ice is actually available, accessible and can be processed into useable commodities?  In other words, in terms defined by the U.S. Geological survey, what are the proven reserves?  A reserve is a subset of a resource that can be economically and legally extracted. 

By way of background, under NASA’s Moon to Mars (M2M) Architecture where the agency is defining a roadmap for return to the Moon and then on to the Red Planet, an Architecture Definition Document (ADD) with the aim of creating an interoperable global lunar utilization infrastructure was released last year.  The goals articulated in the document are to enable the U.S. industry and international partners to maintain continuous robotic and human presence on the lunar surface for a robust lunar economy without NASA as the sole user, while accomplishing science objectives and testing technology that will be needed for operations on Mars. 

Of the nine Lunar Infrastructure (LI) goals in the ADD, LI-7 addresses the need to demonstrate in situ resource utilization (ISRU) through delivery of an experiment to the lunar South Pole, the objective of which would be demonstrating industrial scale ISRU capabilities in support of a continuous human lunar presence and a robust lunar economy.  LI-8 aims to demonstrate a) the capability to transfer propellant from one spacecraft to another in space; b) the capability to store propellant for extended durations in space and c) the capability to store propellant on the lunar surface for extended durations – defining the objective to validate technologies supporting cislunar orbital/surface depots, construction and manufacturing maximizing the use of in-situ resources, and support systems needed for continuous human/robotic presence.

To accomplish these goals NASA initiated a series of Lunar Surface Science Workshops starting in 2020.  The results of workshops 17 and 18  held in 2022 were summarized last January in a paper by Neal et al. in Acta Astronautica and discussed recently at a Future In-Space Operations (FISO) Telecon on 2/14/2024 in a presentation by Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) members Karl Hibbitts, Michael Nord, Jodi Berdis and Michael Miller.  These efforts identified a conundrum: there is not enough data to establish how much proven reserves of lunar water ice are available to inform economically viable plans for ISRU on the Moon.  Thus, a resource prospecting campaign is needed to address this problem.  International cooperation on such an initiative, perhaps in the context of the Artemis Accords, makes sense to share costs while enabling the signatories of the Accords (39 as of this post) to realize economic benefits from commerce in a developing cislunar economy.

The campaign concept proposes a 3-tiered approach. First, confirming ice is present in the PSRs near potential Artemis landing sites – this could be done by low altitude orbital reconnaissance using neutron spectroscopy, radar and other techniques. Next, surface rovers already on the drawing board such as the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), would be deployed to locate specific reserves.

Finally, detailed characterization of the reserve using rovers leveraging capabilities learned from VIPER and optimized for reconnaissance in the PSRs. Some technological improvements would be needed in this final phase to address power and long duration roving under the expected extreme conditions. Nuclear power sources and wireless power beaming from solar arrays on the crater rims, both requiring further development, could solve these challenges. This technology will be directly transferrable to equipment needed for excavation, which will face the same power and reliability hurdles in the ultra cold darkness of the PSRs.

As mentioned in the FISO presentation and pointed out by Kevin Cannon in a previous post by SSP, how water ice is distributed in lunar regolith “endmembers” is a big unknown and could be quite varied.  Characterization during this last phase is paramount before equipment can be designed and optimized for economic extraction.

Artist’s impression of different types of lunar water ice / regolith endmembers, characterization of which will be required before extraction methods and equipment can be validated. Credits: Lena Jakaite / strike-dip.com / Colorado School of Mines

The authors of the paper acknowledge that coordinating an international effort will be difficult but involving all stakeholders will foster cooperation and shape positive legal policy within the framework of the Artemis Accords to comply with the Outer Space Treaty.  

From the conclusion of the paper:

“If the reserve potential is proven, the benefits to society on Earth would be immense, initially realized through job growth in new space industries, but new technologies developed for sending humans offworld and commodities made from lunar resources could have untold important benefits for society back here.”

George Sowers, whose research was referenced in the paper and covered by SSP, believes that “Water truly is the oil of space” that will kickstart a cislunar economy.  Once reserves of lunar water ice are proven to exist through a prospecting campaign and infrastructure is placed to enable economically feasible mining and processing for use as rocket fuel and oxygen for life support systems, technology improvements and automation will reduce costs.    If it can be made competitive with supply chains from Earth lunar water will be the liquid gold that opens the high frontier.

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Curriculum for Astrochemical Engineering

An engineer pondering chemical processes for use in space learned in an advanced postgraduate course in Astrochemical Engineering. Credits: DALL∙E 3

In a paper in the journal Sustainability a global team of researchers has created a two year curriculum to train the next generation of engineers who will design the chemical processes for the new industrial revolution expected to unfold on the high frontier in the next few decades.

Current chemical engineering (ChE) training is not adequate to prepare the next generation of leaders who will guide humanity through the utilization of material resources in space as we expand out into the solar system.

Astrochemical Engineering is a potential new field of study that will adapt ChE to extraterrestrial environments for in situ resource utilization (ISRU) on the Moon, Mars and in the Asteroid Belt, as well as for in-space operations. The body of knowledge suggested in this paper, culminating in Master of Science degree, will provide training to inform the design ISRU equipment, life support systems, the recycling of wastes, and chemical processes adapted for the unique environments of microgravity and space radiation, all under extreme mass and power constraints.

The first year of the program focuses on theory and fundamentals with a core module teaching the physical science of celestial bodies of the solar system, low gravity processes, cryochemistry (extremely low temperature chemistry), and of particular interest, circular systems as applied to environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS) to recycle materials as much as possible. Students have the option to specialize in either process engineering or a more general concentration in space science.

For the process engineering option in year one, students will learn how materials and fluids behave in the extreme cold of space. This will include the types of equipment needed for processes in a vacuum environment including microreactors and heat exchangers, as well as methods for separation and mixing of raw materials.

In the space science specialization, year one will include production of energy and its utilization in space. Applications include solar energy capture and conversion to electricity, nuclear fission/fusion energy, artificial photosynthesis, and the role of energy in life support systems.

In the second year, students learn basic chemical processes for ISRU on other worlds. Processes such as electrolysis for cracking hydrogen and oxygen from water; and the reactions Sabatier, Fischer-Tropsch and Haber-Bosche for production of useful materials.

The second year process engineering specialization focuses on ISRU on the Moon with ice mining, processing regolith and fluid transport under vacuum conditions. Propulsion systems are also covered including methane/oxygen engines, hydrogen logistics, cryogenic propellent handling in space and both nuclear thermal and electric propulsion. Space science specialization in year two covers life support systems and space agriculture.

A design project is required at the end of each year to demonstrate comprehension of the concepts learned in the curriculum, and is split between an individual report and a group project.

Coupled with synthetic geology for unlocking a treasure trove of space materials in the Periodic Table, innovative equipment for ISRU on the drawing board and research on ECLSS, Astrochemical Engineering will be a valuable skill set for the next generation of pioneers at the dawn of the age of space resource utilization.

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Artificial photosynthesis for production of oxygen and fuel on the Moon and Mars

Image of ice in a crater on the Martian plain Vastitas Borealis captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. Credits: ESA/DLR/Freie Universitat Berlin (G. Neukum)

When we establish outposts and eventually, settlements on the Moon or Mars it would be economically beneficial if we did not have to create supply chains from Earth for water, breathable air and the fuel we will need for our rockets. This is why sources of water ice in the permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles and in glaciers in the equatorial regions on Mars are so attractive as early destinations. Once we get there what equipment will we need to process this valuable resource? The typical way envisioned for cracking water in situ on the Moon or Mars to produce oxygen and hydrogen is through electrolysis. But this method requires a lot of power. There may be a more efficient way. New ESA sponsored research by scientists* in the UK and Europe examines a novel method that mimics photosynthesis in plants using a photoelectrochemical (PEC) device. The findings were published June 6 in Nature Communications.

PEC reactors are currently being studied on Earth for water splitting to produce green hydrogen from sunlight. Since they only rely on solar energy for power they are ideal for space applications. One type of device consists of a semiconductor photocathode immersed in an electrolyte solution that absorbs solar energy for a reaction to split hydrogen from water molecules. Oxygen is produced at the anode of the cell. PEC devices can be fabricated as panels similar to photovoltaic arrays. For use on Mars, the authors analyze another similar PEC technology using a gas-diffusion electrode to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide in a reaction producing methane for rocket fuel.

The authors modeled the performance of these devices subjected to the expected environmental conditions on the Moon and Mars. Specifically, they looked at attenuation from the accumulation of dust on the PEC cells caused by micrometeorites pulverizing the lunar surface, coupled with the solar wind inducing an electrostatic charge in the resulting dust. And of course dust storms are relatively frequent on Mars which could significantly degrade performance. To address this problem self cleaning coatings are suggested as a solution. Solar irradiance was also considered as it would be reduced at the orbit of Mars. It was concluded that the PEC performance could be significantly boosted with solar concentrators by a factor of 1000 enabling higher production rates and power densities, especially on Mars.

An added advantage for space-based application of this technology is the elements needed to construct PEC devices are readily available on these worlds obviating the need to transport them from Earth and thereby significantly reducing costs.

“…in-situ utilization of elements on both, the Moon and Mars, is feasible for the construction of PEC devices.”

The technology is ideal to augment the production of oxygen in environmentally controlled life support systems of habitats that may not initially be 100% closed and cannot easily be resupplied with consumables from Earth. A competing technology for oxygen production which was recently demonstrated on Mars is the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) which functions via solid oxide electrolysis of carbon dioxide. This process requires high temperatures and therefore, more energy presenting a challenge when increased production of oxygen will be required for large settlements. The author’s analysis show that the PEC devices are more energy efficient and can easily be scaled up.

“Oxygen production via unassisted PEC systems can … be carried out at room temperature … suitable to be housed in temperature controlled space habitats.”

* Authors of the Nature Communications article Assessment of the technological viability of photoelectrochemical devices for oxygen and fuel production on Moon and Mars: Byron Ross at the University of Warwick, UK; Sophia Haussener at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switerland; Katharina Brinkert, University of Bremen, Germany

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Lunar landing pad trade study

Artist’s impression of a lunar landing pad. Credits: SEArch+

When humanity returns to the Moon and begins to build infrastructure for permanent settlements, propulsive landings will present considerable risk because rocket plumes can accelerate lunar dust particles in the bare regolith to high velocities which could result in considerable damage to nearby structures. Obviously, nothing can be done about the first spacecraft that will return to the moon later this decade unless they use their own rocket plume to create a landing pad like the concept proposed in a NIAC Grant by Masten Space Systems (now part of Astrobotic).

Flight Alumina Spray Technique (FAST) instant landing pad deployment during lunar landing. Source: Matthew Kuhns, Masten Space Systems Inc (now Astrobotic)

Therefore, before significant operations can begin on the Moon that require lots of rockets, a high priority will be construction of landing pads to prevent sandblasting by rocket plume ejecta of planned structures such as habitats, science experiments and other equipment. Several methods are currently being studied. Some require high energy consumption. Others could take a long time to implement. Still others are technologically immature. Which technique makes the most economic sense? Phil Metzger and Greg Autry examine options for the best approach to this urgent need in a November 2022 paper in New Space.

A lunar landing pad should have an inner and outer zone. The inner zone will have to withstand the intense heat of a rocket plume during decent and ascent. The outer zone can be less robust as the expanding gases will cool rapidly and decrease in pressure but will still be expanding rapidly, so erosion will have to be mitigated over a wider area.

Landing pad layout showing inner and outer zone measurements proposed in this study (Figure 1 in paper). Credits: Philip Metzger and Greg Autry / New Space – Lunar surface image credit: NASA.

Several processes of fabricating landing pads were examined by the authors. Sintering of regolith is one such technique, where dust grains are heated and fused by a variety of methods including microwave heating or focused solar energy. SSP has reported on the latter previously, but in this study it was noted that that technology needs further development work. Fabricating pavers by baking in ovens in situ was also examined in a addition to infusion of a polymer into the regolith to promote particle adhesion.

An economic model was developed to support construction of landing pads for NASA’s Artemis Program based on experimental data and the physics for predicting critical features of construction methods. Factors such as the equipment energy consumption, the mass of microwave generators compared to the power output needed to sinter the soil to specified thickness, and the mass of polymer needed to infuse the regolith to fabricate the pads were included in the model. Other factors were considered including the costs associated with program delays, hardware development, transportation of equipment to the lunar surface, and reliability.

When varying these parameters and comparing different combinations of manufacturing techniques, the trade study optimized the mass of construction equipment to balance the costs of transportation with program delays. The authors found that from a cost perspective, microwave sintering makes the most sense for both the inner and outer regions of the landing pad, at least initially. When transportation costs come down to below a threshold of $110K/kg then a hybrid combination of microwave sintering in the inner zone and polymer infusion of regolith in the outer zone makes the most sense.

Once astronauts land safely and begin EVAs on the lunar surface, they can keep from tracking dust into their habitat by taking an electron beam shower.

Other lunar dust problems and their risks can be mitigated with solutions covered previously on SSP.