Oh, Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven: Fueling Up in Space with In-Situ Resource Utilization

ASTE-527 Final PresentationRiley Garrett

Mission Context – Lunar Excavator

Colorado School of Mines1

Carnegie Mellon

Mission Context – Water Ice Deposits on the Moon

600 million tons of water ice2

Permanently shadowed areas exist in the Moon’s deep craters

Mission Context – Lunar Propellant

Purdue University3

• Aluminum makes up 13% of the mass of lunar highland regolith

• ALICE powered rocket -Thrust levels above 650 lb with Isp of 210 s during test flight

Rationale for In-Situ Lunar Propellant Production – Better

PerformanceExamples of Propellant Depot Impact4

Current Performance

Performance With Depot

Lunar Missions• Landed Mass• Surface Payload

18 tons2 tons

51 tons35 tons

GTO Mission• Delta IV H• Atlas V 551

13 tons9 tons

35 tons23 tons

GSO Mission• Delta IV H• Atlas V 551

6 tons4 tons

18 tons10 tons

Interplanetary Mission• Delta IV H• Atlas V 551

10 tons7 tons

20 tons15 tons

Saturn V with Propellant Depot

Saturn V Launch Vehicle5

Mass, tons

Weight at Lift-off 3200

Translunar Payload, total

54

CM/SM propellant mass

20 

LEM propellant mass

12

% payload mass which was propellant

59.3%Using propellant depot means Saturn V does not need to launch 32 tons of propellant…delta-V for TLI (10.8 km/s) can be nearly be achieved with just the first 2 stages

LEO 125,000 kgGTO TBD

Fairing Diameter

8.38 m

Price in millions

$769

LEO 50,000 kgGTO 9,650 kg

Fairing Diameter

5.2 m

Price in millions

$78

• 50 metric tons dry = 125 metric tons wet with using depots6

• A launch vehicle can be much smaller at 1/10th the cost

Assumptions and ground rules

Robotic Precursors Lead the Way…

…to a more Permanent Human Presence7

7-Eleven Space Mission Concept – Land a Rover on the Moon and Re-launch using only In-Situ

Resources• Robotic Precursor

Mission to Demonstrate a Factory for Processing Lunar Material for Rocket Propellant8

Search – Land - Drive – Drill - Dig - Analyze - Extract - Mix - Load - Launch

7-Eleven Space Mission Architecture - Launch Vehicle

7- Eleven Space Mission Architecture – Trajectory and Landing Site

7-Eleven Space Mission Architecture – Mission Operations and Systems

1. Soil Sampling, 2. Landing, 3. Mining and Excavation,

4. Production and Refinement, 5. Loading and Launching

7-Eleven Space Mission Architecture - Spacecraft

LanderRover9

Dig and DrillExcavate

7 Eleven

7-Eleven Space Mission Architecture – Spacecraft InstrumentsExtraction10 – Mixer – Loader - Launch

anorthosite

Melt - quench - leech

alumina electrolysis

+

cryolite

aluminumNano-aluminum

ALICE Pulse Plasma

Merits and Limitations

Mission Merits• Demonstrates technology sooner

rather than later.• Engages mission architects and

planners in alternate propellant sources.

• Engages the public in another rover based mission (which they like).

• Meet program needs in terms of cost and scale.

• Demonstrates appropriate technology, at an appropriate scale.

• Shows Congress and NASA heads what to expect from ISRU and propellant depots.

• Proves the technology.

Mission Limitations• Is the mission scalable

to meet larger propellant demands?

• Can the mission be extended for other resource extractions such as water and oxygen?

• Does a solid propellant meet the propulsion requirements for enough spacecraft to make it worthwhile?

Future Studies

• Developing re-startable ALICE solid propellant loading techniques for spacecraft station-keeping in GEO

• Improve specific impulse of ALICE solid propellant

• Oxygen and hydrogen production methods for liquid propulsion systems

• Silane production for rocket engines on Mars since it can burn using carbon dioxide as an oxidizer

• Extending propellant production methods for ISRU on NEO or Mars

Proposed Mars sample and return mission using in-situ produced propellant11

References

1. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/multimedia/photos/2004/photos04-072.html

2. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/water-moon-north-pole/

3. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/afoo-nat082109.php

4. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leag2007/presentations/20071003.bienhoff.pdf

5. http://www.wwheaton.com/waw/mad/mad3.html6. http://www.nss.org/articles/depots.html7. http://www.impactlab.net/2011/10/22/lunar-scientists-plan-for-su

stainable-and-affordable-moon-base/

8. http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/multimedia/isru-hawaii.html9. http://astrobotic.net/services/payload-delivery/10.http://www.asi.org/adb/02/02/03/aluminum-extraction.html11.beyondapollo.blogspot.com