Planning for a human mission to Mars dates back to the 1950s, but in the 1990s, a new aspect was introduced: In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). In its simplest form, it utilizes indigenous Mars resources to produce propellants for ascent from Mars, thus significantly reducing the mass that must be transported to Mars. If accessible water can be found at a suitable landing site, or if hydrogen can be efficiently transported to Mars, not only ascent propellants, but also water and oxygen for life support could be produced on Mars. In the (likely) absence of accessible hydrogen, CO2 in the Mars atmosphere can be electrolyzed to produce oxygen, representing about 78% of the required total mass of ascent propellants. While lunar ISRU has been claimed by some to be a steppingstone to Mars ISRU, I show here that there is relatively little connection. Furthermore, lunar ISRU has far less mission benefit, and does not appear to provide any return on investment. After years of investing in lunar ISRU, which has not led to much more than impractical concepts, and decades of providing very little funding for Mars ISRU, NASA finally provided significant funding for Mars ISRU in 2014 via the “MOXIE” Project. MOXIE successfully demonstrated conversion of CO2 to O2 on Mars across a Martian year.
Various proposals have been made for producing propellants in space and storing them in depots in near-Earth space. While appealing at first glance, analysis of the details shows that these schemes are at best, marginal.
In Situ Utilization of Indigenous Resources
Springer Praxis Books(formerly: Springer-Praxis Series)
2023-01-02
94 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
In Situ Utilization of Indigenous Resources
Springer Verlag | 2015
|Online Contents | 2009
Online Contents | 2008