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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Resource Prospector Evaluating the ISRU Potential of the Lunar Poles

Anthony Colaprete, RP Project Scientist

LEAG 2017

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Why RP?

RP was spawned to answer fundamental

questions about volatiles resources on the moon

The lunar science community, commercial industry,

and political leaders are interested in better

understanding the nature of lunar volatiles, both as

an Exploration opportunity to reduce cost of humans

in deep space, and for lunar science

RP follows in the footsteps of a number of lunar

missions such as Lunar Prospector, LCROSS, LRO,

Chandrayaan-1, etc

RP is attempting to address all of the GER’s ISRU

recommendations:

1. Prospect for the lunar resources

2. Demonstrate volatiles resources processing


Key to Addressing the ISRU Potential

Important Parameters for ISRU Viability / Economics

• Volatile distribution (concentration, including lateral

and vertical extent and variability)

• Volatile Form (H2, OH, H2O, CO2, Ice vs bound, etc).

• Overburden: How much and type of material needing

to be removed to get to ore?

• Working Environment: Sun/Shadow fraction, soil

mechanics, trafficability, temperatures

Resource extraction must be ‘Economical’

• Need data concerning distribution and accessibility to

help determine if a resource and processing technique

allows for positive Return on Investment (ROI),

including Mass, Cost, Time, and Mission/Crew Safety

• Amount of product needed justifies investment in

extraction and processing From “Committee for

Mineral Reserves and

International Reporting

Standards, 2013

RPs Role


The First Step: Exploration and Prospecting

First Step in Mining is Exploration / Prospecting • Need to provide strategic knowledge input to the resource potential /

economics: In what locations/environment is the ISRU potential (the

Resource Reserves) maximum?

Exploration and prospecting characterizes the location and

the extent of the ore that is being sought

• Provide data for studies to the feasibility and economics to access

the ore (ore = any material with potential economic or other value)

• Provides the ground truth and linkage between on-site conditions to

regional remote sensing data sets

• Tests theories of emplacement and retention that will improve models

to predict ore location and grade (concentration)


Basis for Resource Need

To develop mission requirements defined a “Basis of Need”, a

case study for ore body quality, quantity and recovery efficiency

Need Case Assumed:

• 1000 kg of O2 per year for Crew support (Based on Constellation

studies)

Processing Assumptions:

• Distribution: 0.5% water ice with 0.5 meter dry over burden

• Excavation to 1m deep

• Capture efficiency: 10%, including mining/acquisition, extraction,

transportation, processing and storage

The need with these assumption requires an approximately 2500 m2

area to be excavated to 1 meter deep

This model acts as the basis for RP Level 2 requirements,

including sensitivity and spatial extent

Boucher, 2016

Defining Case for Requirement Development


Crater Mixing • Dominant geological process affecting top meter of regolith

is small impact cratering

• Distance between 10m wide craters (~1m deep) is ~50-

150m

• Consequently top 0.5 meters is likely to be patchy at scales

of 10s-100s of meters

Resource Spatial Extent and Distribution – Cratering and Temperature

Temperature Control • Temperature appears to be a necessary requirement,

but not the only determinant of volatile presence

• Thermal stability is defined as the temperature at

which ice is stable in vacuum for geological periods of

time (~Gyrs), or around <107K

• Temperature variations are largely determined by

topography, thus temperature variations will be

significant down to scales of <5 meters

Ice Stability Depth Map

(Siegler and Paige, 2017) Hurley et al. 2013


Understanding the Resource Potential

What is the ISRU value of deposits across the range of

environments, terrain types and length scales?

Define four environments based on the predicted thermal stability of ice

with depth, the Resource Target Regions (RTRs):

‒ Dry: Temperatures in the top meter expected to be too warm for

ice to be stable

‒ Deep: Ice expected to be stable between 50-100 cm of the

surface

‒ Shallow: Ice expected to be stable within 50cm of surface

‒ Surface: Ice expected to be stable at the surface (ie., within a

Permanently Shadowed Region, PSR)

Is the Resource Need met in a 50x50x1m equivalent volume in any

of these RTRs? Better in one than another?

Ice Stability Depth Map

(Siegler and Paige, 2017)

Resource Target Region Map


A. Need to measure to production fraction for a 50x50x1m equivalent volume (Ore Body)

What is the average water production from a 50x50x1m equivalent volume of ore?

The answer provides scales the production efficiency of a particular thermal region

B. Within a 50x50x1m equivalent volume what is the variability, or delineation of the ore deposit?

The answer informs the excavation technique and efficiency: Is the water patchy vs uniform at excavation tool

scales?

C. What is the variability from one 50x50x1m equivalent volume to the next?

Answer informs regional production efficiency beyond a single sample site

50x50m

B. Delineation of the ore

deposit

across production area

50x50m

A. Measure total yield of an

ore body at scales sufficient

to meet need

50x50m

C. Ore grade correlation with

thermal environment across

relevant geologic scales

(>100m)

RTR A #1

RTR A #2

What is the overall productivity of a given Resource Target Regions (RTR)?


Sampling

Prospecting

NIR Volatiles Spectrometer System

(NIRVSS) • Surface H2O/OH identification

• Near-subsurface sample

characterization

• Drill site imaging

• Drill site temperatures

Resource Prospector – The Tool Box

Drill • Subsurface sample acquisition

• Auger for fast subsurface assay

• Sample transfer for detailed

subsurface assay

Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) • Water-equivalent hydrogen > 0.5 wt%

down to 1 meter depth

Mobility Rover • Mobility system

• Cameras

• Surface interaction

Processing & Analysis

Oxygen & Volatile Extraction Node

(OVEN) • Volatile Content/Oxygen Extraction by

warming

• Total sample mass

Lunar Advanced Volatile Analysis

(LAVA) • Analytical volatile identification and

quantification in delivered sample

with GC/MS

• Measure water content of regolith at

0.5% (weight) or greater

• Characterize volatiles of interest

below 70 AMU

Water Analysis and Volatile Extraction

(WAVE):


RP Measurement Activities

Prospecting:

• While roving, near continuous observations from a neutron spectrometer, provides bulk

hydrogen down to 1m, and NIR spectrometer, providing surface hydration and minerology

• Identifies key areas for subsurface evaluation activities

Area of Interest Mapping (AIM)

• Maps a focused area at higher raster density

• Used to identify small scale heterogeneity and select drill sites

Near Surface Assay (NSA)

• Drilling to a specified depth, up to 1-m; each 10-cm segments are exposed for examination by

NIR spectrometer and high-res multi-color camera system

• Identifies volatile content with depth, constrains neutrons

Volatile Analysis (VA)

• Captures up to 15 grams of material from drill and warms to 150°C and 450°C

• Baked-0ff gasses analyzed by GC/MS

• Provides analytical determination of compound type (1-70AMU) and concentration

In each RTR the minimum measurement set includes 3 AIMs, 2 NSAs and 1 VA

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

1.1

1.2

1700 2200 2700 3200

Rad

ian

ce

Wavelength (nm)

Bite 1Bite 2Bite 3Bite 5-6


RP Traverse Example at Hermite-A

Green = potential landing site, red=potential psr sample, grayscale=amt of sunlight, circles=drill sites

Achieves full mission success with margin

• Minimum measurement set in all 4 RTRs (includes

2 in PSR)

Other Planner Inputs / Constraints:

• Activity Dictionary (activities, durations, energy

requirements, etc)

• Waypoint Selection

• Power and Downlink Models (array size,

efficiency, rover power, etc)

• Driving Speed (speed made good)

• Availability of sun and comm (time and space

dependent)

• Trafficability (identify keep out areas of hazardous

slopes)

• Maps that combine other maps (AND-ing multiple

layers)


Automated Traverse Search Tool

• Approximately two-dozen traverses have been

planned at four polar sites (two north and two

south)

• Planning uses Traverse Planner Tool with

waypoints placed by hand

• An automated traverse search tool has been

developed to automatically find regions that meet

basic requirements (not optimized)

• Has been applied to Hermite-A region, finding

thousands of potential traverses (many very

similar to each other)

Automated Planning Tool


Real Decision-Making Time Scales – Driving Simulator

• Synthetic terrain, tied to measured DEM at larger scales

– Uses published crater and block size-frequency distributions down to sub-meter scales

– RP has also done additional rock and crater distribution studies to augment the tools

– Used for establishing driver decision-making times

Rover Driving Simulation; credit M.Allan

Driving simulation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_g76IxtyBk&feature=youtu.be


RP Development History and Future

International partnerships

Commercial partnerships 2022

2015

RP worked partnerships with CSA, JAXA, and Taiwan

AES PPBE18

PRG: Investigate

commercial flight

opportunities for

RP instruments

RP15

Build a “RP15”

prototype

rover/payload

system (“Surface

Segment”)

2016

Market research

of NewSpace

commercials:

Astrobotic,

MoonX, Masten

RP15

“RP15” Surface

Segment

analogue and

environmental

testing

Project Timeline: FY14: Phase A (Formulation)

FY15: Phase A (Demonstration: RP15)

FY16: Phase A (Environmental testing: RP15)

• FY17: Phase B SRR (Begin Preliminary Design)

• FY18: Phase C: MDR/PDR (Implementation)

• FY19: Phase C: CDR (Critical design)

• FY20: Phase D: SIR/I&T

• FY21/22: RP launch (predicated by budget details)

2017 2014

Formulating

the RP

payload-

mobility system

design

2018

Investigate PPP

option with SMD

& STMD for

Lunar Cargo

services.

Preliminary

Design

Lock-down

Surface Segment

requirements


Rover 7/17 8/17 9/17 10/17 11/17 12/17 1/18 2/18 3/18 4/18 5/18 6/18 7/18 8/18 9/18

PDR

Mobility controllers

Mobility propulsion

Mobility suspension

Mobility steering

Battery/BMS

Gimbals

Localization software

Slip detection software

Payload

NSS

NIRVSS

Drill

WAVE

MOS

Planning/Traverse/Ma

pping

Significant progress in several key/unique areas towards TRL 6 by PDR

TRL 5 TRL 6

RP Technical Maturity

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6

Mobility, Lander Egress, Drilling

Movie here

RP Environmental Testing ARGOS Gravity Offload Facility (1/6g)


RP Environmental Testing TVAC testing

TVAC chamber testing of RP15

rover and payload subsystems

RP15 wheels &

steering assemblies

undergoing TVAC test

RP15

OVEN

system

undergoing

TVAC test


RP Environmental Testing Vibe testing

Z-axis testing of RP15 rover

OVEN in vibe

Drill in vibe

X/Y-axes testing

of RP15 rover


RP Environmental Testing Radiation Beam Testing @ Brookhaven

Eight hours of radiation beam testing at BNL,

testing rover and payload electronics

Discovered Single Event Upset and latch-up events

which will inform our designs moving forward.

Information contained in this presentation is not subject to Export Controls (ITAR/EAR) 20 20

Let’s go.

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