scholarly journals Regolith Excavation Performance of a Screw-propelled Vehicle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Green ◽  
Teresa McBryan ◽  
Darwin Mick ◽  
David Nelson ◽  
Hamid Marvi
Keyword(s):  
Resource Utilization ◽  
Silica Sand ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Cost Of Transport ◽  
Wheeled Vehicle ◽  
Power Draw ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Human Exploration ◽  
Excavation Performance

Excavation of regolith is the enabling process for many of the in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) efforts that are being considered to aid in the human exploration of the moon and Mars. Most proposed planetary excavation systems are integrated with a wheeled vehicle, but none yet have used a screw-propelled vehicle which can significantly enhance the excavation performance. Therefore, CASPER, a novel screw-propelled excavation rover is developed and analyzed to determine its effectiveness as a planetary excavator. The excavation rate, power, velocity, cost of transport, and a new parameter, excavation transport rate, are analyzed for various configurations of the vehicle through mobility and excavation tests performed in silica sand. The optimal configuration yielded a 30 kg/hr excavation rate and 10.2 m/min traverse rate with an overall system mass of 3.4 kg and power draw of less than 30 W. These results indicate that this architecture shows promise as a planetary excavation because it provides significant excavation capability with low mass and power requirements. Corresponding author(s) Email:   [email protected]  

Preparing for robotic and human exploration missions which incorporate in-situ resource utilization

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Sanders ◽  
Joseph Trevathan ◽  
Todd Peters ◽  
R. Baird ◽  
William Larson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Utilization ◽  
Human Exploration

scholarly journals Combustion Synthesis Technology for a Sustainable Settlement Overnight

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Osamu Odawara
Keyword(s):  
Combustion Synthesis ◽  
Resource Utilization ◽  
High Vacuum ◽  
Thermal Control ◽  
Low Earth Orbit ◽  
Earth Orbit ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Earth

Space technology has been developed for frontier exploration not only in low-earth orbit environment but also beyond the earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, where material resources might be strongly restricted and almost impossible to be resupplied from the earth for distant and long-term missions performance toward “long-stays of humans in space”. For performing such long-term space explorations, none would be enough to develop technologies with resources only from the earth; it should be required to utilize resources on other places with different nature of the earth, i.e., in-situ resource utilization. One of important challenges of lunar in-situ resource utilization is thermal control of spacecraft on lunar surface for long-lunar durations. Such thermal control under “long-term field operation” would be solved by “thermal wadis” studied as a part of sustainable researches on overnight survivals such as lunar-night. The resources such as metal oxides that exist on planets or satellites could be refined, and utilized as a supply of heat energy, where combustion synthesis can stand as a hopeful technology for such requirements. The combustion synthesis technology is mainly characterized with generation of high-temperature, spontaneous propagation of reaction, rapid synthesis and high operability under various influences with centrifugal-force, low-gravity and high vacuum. These concepts, technologies and hardware would be applicable to both the Moon and Mars, and these capabilities might achieve the maximum benefits of in-situ resource utilization with the aid of combustion synthesis applications. The present paper mainly concerns the combustion synthesis technologies for sustainable lunar overnight survivals by focusing on “potential precursor synthesis and formation”, “in-situ resource utilization in extreme environments” and “exergy loss minimization with efficient energy conversion”.

Preliminary system analysis of in situ resource utilization for Mars human exploration

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Rapp ◽  
J. Andringa ◽  
R. Easter ◽  
J.H. Smith ◽  
T.J. Wilson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Utilization ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Human Exploration

A brief review of chemical and mineralogical resources on the Moon and likely initial in situ resource utilization (ISRU) applications

2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Anand ◽  
I.A. Crawford ◽  
M. Balat-Pichelin ◽  
S. Abanades ◽  
W. van Westrenen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Utilization ◽  
The Moon
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