Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Earth Resources”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Hosting downscaled decision-relevant community data products in ESGF2-US

As regionally-relevant high-resolution Earth system data is increasingly relied upon across scientific, policy, and practitioner communities, there is an urgent need for coordinated and federated infrastructure to store, manage, standardize, and distribute decision-relevant community data products. Substantial effort is required to ensure that these products, which are often critical for regional impact assessments and decision-making, are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. The Earth System Grid Federation US project (ESGF2-US) is addressing this challenge by expanding its open-source, distributed platform to support the hosting and dissemination of downscaled Earth system datasets. This expansion includes aligning new downscaled datasets with developing community standards for metadata and file structure, consistent with existing ESGF archives. This includes ensuring CF-compliance, applying CMORization where appropriate, and developing tools to streamline user access. In this paper, we highlight the technical and coordination work required to bring downscaled data into ESGF2-US and aim to inform the broader Earth system data user community about the growing availability and utility of these curated resources.

ESGF↗
DOE OSTI2023

MAM4xx

SAND2023-05377O The Modal Aerosol Model with 4 fixed modes (MAM4xx) is a performance-portable, C++ implementation for modeling the chemical reactions of aerosols in the atmosphere. MAM4xx is part of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The E3SM project is an ongoing Earth system modeling, simulation, and prediction project that optimizes the use of DOE laboratory resources to meet the science needs of the nation and the mission needs of DOE. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Overfelt, James↗
DOE OSTI2024

E3SM: Improved Climate Prediction with Exascale Capability

The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project is an ongoing, state-of-the-science earth system modeling, simulation, and prediction effort that optimizes Department of Energy (DOE) computing resources to meet the science needs of the nation and the agency’s mission objectives. Climate simulation has become a proven tool for identifying and quantifying the impacts of climate change, but even greater accuracy is required at all levels to improve forecast precision. Understanding the impact of climate change on global and regional water cycles is one of the highest priorities and most difficult challenges in climate change prediction. As part of a subproject of DOE’s Exascale Computing Project, a multidisciplinary team including geophysical and computational scientists developed a multiscale modeling framework (MMF) to refine cloud representation in E3SM climate simulation on GPU accelerated supercomputers, making higher resolution, more computationally efficient predictions possible.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Introduction to Evolve Central Appalachia

The Evolve-CAPP project is developing and implementing strategies to enable the Central Appalachian basin to realize its full economic potential for producing high-value, non-fuel, carbon-ore (CO) products, rare earth elements (REE), and critical minerals (CM). The Basinal Assessment of CORE-CM Resources is a state-of-the-art geological model and comprehensive database that will be used to identify, locate, and quantify in-situ resources in the basin. Restrictive aspects of resource recovery, such as ownership and legal restrictions, are being considered in estimating recoverable resources. A gap analysis of missing or unavailable data that could not be fully integrated in the initial assessment due to budget, access, or other constraints during the assessment effort is planned. A characterization and data acquisition plan to fully characterize the basin’s CORE-CM potential will address gaps in data. The plan will be developed with input from project team members and relevant stakeholders, including land and mineral holding companies and coal operators, who maintain sampling programs as part of their normal operations.

Bishop, Richard↗
DOE OSTI2023

CRITICAL MINERAL RESOURCE ASSESSMENT OF COALS FROM THE POWDER RIVER BASIN, WYOMING, USA

Coal and associated sediments are potential sources of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and other critical minerals necessary for many consumer and defense-related products and development of energy technologies. For this study, 15 samples were sourced from Dry Fork Mine within the Powder River Basin near Gillette, Wyoming, to determine REE content along with select transition metals (t-metals) of interest in non-combusted coals and associated sediments. An excavator collected samples along a mine highwall, within benched intervals representing a foot to a few feet of coal strata. Homogenized sample subsets were crushed in an aluminum-ceramic vial, then passed through a 106-micron sieve. Sieved samples were pyrolyzed by a LECO TGA-108, which concurrently measured sample moisture, volatile, and ash content. Residual ash was then fused into a glass bead with lithium metaborate at a 6:1 Li-metaborate to sample ratio and then dissolved in 20% nitric acid. The nitric acid solutions containing digested beads were then diluted and passed through a 0.45 micron syringe filter. Filtered samples were analyzed by ICP-MS for REE and select t-metals. Reagent blanks were analyzed to assess for any potential contamination. Total REE plus Y (REE+Y) concentrations across the 15 samples range from 52 ppm to 1015 ppm with an average of 477 ppm on a dry ash basis. When normalized to upper continental crust (UCC; Taylor and McLennan, 1985) values, 13 of the 15 samples show average enrichment factors (EF) for REE+Y greater than 1. EF values indicate M-type enrichment (Sm through Er), as opposed to distinct preferential enrichment of light or heavy REE. T-metals with the highest average concentrations are V, Cu, Ni, and Zr at 215, 243, 123, and 118 ppm, respectively. Multiple t-metals had EF>1; however, Cu, Ge, and Sb have the highest average EF relative to UCC for t-metals, at 9.7, 8.0, and 17.0, respectively.

Copeland, Grant↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Unified Data Infrastructure for Biological and Environmental Research: A Report from the BER Advisory Committee

The Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science supports large-scale data generation efforts across its two divisions: Biological Systems Science and Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences. These efforts include user facilities in atmospheric radiation measurements, genomics, metabolomics, proteomics, compute, and imaging. In addition, BER supports the development of plant-based fuels; research in biosystems design, environmental microbiomes, and atmospheric systems; energy flux monitoring; climate-based ecosystem experiments; pathogen biopreparedness; and modeling of climate, urban interfaces, and interactions between people and energy resources. For data access, BER supports community data services at its user facilities, along with specialized data initiatives for Earth and environmental science, climate modeling, genomic and microbial analysis, and multisector dynamics modeling.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-Resolution Modeling of the Gulf of Mexico using E3SM

Coastal ocean modeling is a high priority in the DOE‘s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The goal is to accurately predict the risk of damage to coastal resources and infrastructure due to a changing climate in the coming decades. North American coastal communities are areas of particular interest, as this fits under the topic of US national security and planning assessments in a changing climate. LANL Institutional Computing time for the Tier 1 allocation ”Coastal Ocean and Sea Ice Modeling” have been used for development and testing of numerical methods needed for E3SM coastal applications.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Towards A Geo-Data Science Method for Assessing Rare Earth Element and Critical Mineral Occurrences in Coal and Other Sedimentary Systems

While preliminary analyses of data from open-source resources (Ekmann, 2012) show promising concentrations of REE in individual coal samples from a number of sites and basins in the U.S., other sparse data for REE in domestic coal-related strata suggest that many occurrences are low, “subeconomic” concentrations. At present, there is no method for systematically assessing potential sedimentary occurrences of REE. However, the geologic processes responsible for REE occurrences in coal-related strata are systematic; the unpredictability of REE resources in coal-related strata is due to poorly quantified spatial resource trends and the lack of an exploration method tailored to these resources. Thus, there exists a need for a systematic assessment approach that incorporates knowledge of geological variation in the mechanisms of REE enrichment within coal basins to help minimize geologic uncertainty and reduce commercial exploration risk.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2023

Machine Learning for Geothermal Resource Exploration in the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico

Geothermal energy is considered an essential renewable resource to generate flexible electricity. Geothermal resource assessments conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey showed that the southwestern basins in the U.S. have a significant geothermal potential for meeting domestic electricity demand. Within these southwestern basins, play fairway analysis (PFA), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office, identified that the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico has significant geothermal potential. This short communication paper presents a machine learning (ML) methodology for curating and analyzing the PFA data from the DOE’s geothermal data repository. The proposed approach to identify potential geothermal sites in the Tularosa Basin is based on an unsupervised ML method called non-negative matrix factorization with custom k-means clustering. This methodology is available in our open-source ML framework, GeoThermalCloud (GTC). Using this GTC framework, we discover prospective geothermal locations and find key parameters defining these prospects. Our ML analysis found that these prospects are consistent with the existing Tularosa Basin’s PFA studies. This instills confidence in our GTC framework to accelerate geothermal exploration and resource development, which is generally time-consuming.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Embracing the Intersections of Environmental Science, Engineering, and Geosciences to Solve Grand Challenges of the 21st Century

The U.S. National Academies report on Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century identified five grand challenges of sustainably supplying food, water, and energy; curbing climate change and adapting to its impacts; designing a future without pollution and waste; creating efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and fostering informed decisions and actions. (1) Addressing many of the grand challenges will require embracing the intersections of environmental science, engineering, and geosciences. These three fields are inherently interdisciplinary, and they naturally intersect with each other (Figure 1). Geosciences, or Earth sciences, study the dynamics of different spheres of Earth. One of its missions is to detect the availability of mineral, water, and fuel resources, for sustainable development, and new research opportunities were identified in “coevolution of life, environment, and climate” and “biogeochemical and water cycles in terrestrial environments and impacts of global change” by the U.S. National Research Council. (2) Environmental science and engineering focus on the spheres that intersect with human activities. Environmental science puts an emphasis on understanding the migration of naturally occurring and anthropogenic contaminants in the environment and their impact on ecosystem and human health, and environmental engineering centers on developing technologies for water supply, mineral exploration, and environmental remediation to mitigate adverse impacts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Trash to Treasure: Waste Carbon into Construction Materials

Mineralization of industrial waste and earth-abundant CO2 into value-added products is a powerful method of utilizing domestic resources to produce value from waste. Carbonate minerals formed from Ca and Mg rich waste streams are key constituents in cement and concrete, which are in demand at the gigaton-scale every year. While thermodynamically favorable, CO2 mineralization is hindered by slow kinetics, and traditional thermochemical routes are too expensive to scale. Here, we demonstrate the advantages of an electrochemical method of waste valorization, which eliminates this limitation and improves kinetics. We highlight this method's ability to initiate crystallization under favorable local conditions, producing carbonates from mining waste at mildly acidic pH. We highlight the effects of key constituents in mining waste on the mineralization process.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Purple is the new green: biopigments and spectra of Earth-like purple worlds

ABSTRACT With more than 5500 detected exoplanets, the search for life is entering a new era. Using life on Earth as our guide, we look beyond green landscapes to expand our ability to detect signs of surface life on other worlds. While oxygenic photosynthesis gives rise to modern green landscapes, bacteriochlorophyll-based anoxygenic phototrophs can also colour their habitats and could dominate a much wider range of environments on Earth-like exoplanets. Here, we characterize the reflectance spectra of a collection of purple sulfur and purple non-sulfur bacteria from a variety of anoxic and oxic environments. We present models for Earth-like planets where purple bacteria dominate the surface and show the impact of their signatures on the reflectance spectra of terrestrial exoplanets. Our research provides a new resource to guide the detection of purple bacteria and improves our chances of detecting life on exoplanets with upcoming telescopes. Our biological pigment data base for purple bacteria and the high-resolution spectra of Earth-like planets, including ocean worlds, snowball planets, frozen worlds, and Earth analogues, are available online, providing a tool for modellers and observers to train retrieval algorithms, optimize search strategies, and inform models of Earth-like planets, where purple is the new green.

Coelho, Lígia Fonseca (ORCID:0000000150081249)↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Review of Infrasound and Seismic Observations of Sample Return Capsules since the End of the Apollo Era in Anticipation of the OSIRIS-REx Arrival

Advancements in space exploration and sample return technology present a unique opportunity to leverage sample return capsules (SRCs) towards studying atmospheric entry of meteoroids and asteroids. Specifically engineered for the secure transport of valuable extraterrestrial samples from interplanetary space to Earth, SRCs offer unexpected benefits that reach beyond their intended purpose. As SRCs enter the Earth’s atmosphere at hypervelocity, they are analogous to naturally occurring meteoroids and thus, for all intents and purposes, can be considered artificial meteors. Furthermore, SRCs are capable of generating shockwaves upon reaching the lower transitional flow regime, and thus can be detected by strategically positioned geophysical instrumentation. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) SRC is one of only a handful of artificial objects to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere from interplanetary space since the end of the Apollo era and it will provide an unprecedented observational opportunity. This review summarizes past infrasound and seismic observational studies of SRC re-entries since the end of the Apollo era and presents their utility towards the better characterization of meteoroid flight through the atmosphere.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hawai‘i Play Fairway (Final Report)

Most of Hawai'i's geothermal resources are blind—their manifestations, such as hot springs and steam vents, do not appear on the ground surface because the heated water flows far below. With the exception of $K\bar{i}lauea East Rift Zone$, in most areas of Hawai'i, high lateral permeability in the first kilometer below ground surface prevents surface thermal features from developing. As a methodology for discovering these blind resources, Play Fairway Analysis (PFA) involves finding potential locations of blind hydrothermal systems and describing potential geothermal sources in rift-zone settings. Using the PFA to find Hawai'i's geothermal resources, the University of Hawai'i (UH) conducted the Hawai‘i Play Fairway Project, Hawai'i's first statewide geothermal resource assessment since 1985. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Hawai'i Play Fairway Project provided an updated resource assessment, a roadmap for additional exploration activities, and the identification of areas for further exploration. Benefitting from UH's core competency in earth sciences and experienced geothermal researchers, the project comprised three phases. During the first phase, the team identified, compiled, and ranked existing geologic, groundwater, and geophysical datasets relevant to subsurface heat, fluid and permeability. Using a Bayesian statistical approach, the team developed a statistical methodology to integrate these data into a resource probability map. The team evaluated the confidence in the probability value and considered development viability of areas with geothermal resources. With these analyses, the team identified 10 locations in the Hawaiian Islands for exploration activities. For the second phase, the team collected new groundwater data in 10 locations across the state and new geophysical data on $L\bar{a}na‘i, Maui$, and central Hawai'i Island and modeled topographically induced stress to better characterize subsurface permeability. Analyzing the subsurface stresses, the team evaluated the potential for fracture-induced permeability. The team inverted the MT and gravity data to produce 3D models of resistivity and density, respectively, on $L\bar{a}na‘i$, across $Haleakal\bar{a}'s$ SW rift (Maui), and surrounding Mauna Kea (Hawai‘i Island). The team developed and applied a new method for incorporating depth information about resistivity, density, and potential for fracture-induced permeability into the statistical method for computing resource probability in these three focus areas. The team incorporated the new groundwater results with the new geophysical results and the calculations of potential for fracture-induced permeability to produce updated maps of resource probability and confidence. Through combining data from the first and second phases, the team determined locations for further exploration during the third phase. For MT and gravity surveys, the team recommended $Kaua'i's$ $L\bar{i}hu'e$ $Basin$, the east rift of $Maui's$ $Haleakal\bar{a}$ volcano, and the southwest rift of Hawai'i Island's Mauna Loa volcano. The MT and gravity surveys aimed to enable improved confidence in the resource potential in these locations. For drilling deep groundwater well(s), the team recommended Southeast Mauna Kea and $L\bar{a}na's$ $P\bar{a}l\bar{a}wai$ $Basin$. During the third phase, further exploration involved drilling a groundwater well in $L\bar{a}na's$ $P\bar{a}l\bar{a}wai$ $Basin$ and performing more geophysical surveys. We deepened an existing water well proximal to our target area on $L\bar{a}na'i$ due to funding constraints that precluded us from spudding a new well that would exceed 1km depth. Drilling was preceded by a number of substantial elements including: writing an Environmental Assessment and the subsequent legal process, performance of deviation logging, lowering a camera down the well, coordinating site preparation with $P\bar{u}lama$ $L\bar{a}na'i$, shipping the UH-owned rig interisland, procuring supplies, and leading 3 community meetings on $L\bar{a}na'i$. Drilling occurred 24/7 the entire month of June 2019 over which time $L\bar{a}na'i$ $Well$ 10 was deepened from 427 m to 1057 m, with continuous core collected. We measured a roughly linear temperature gradient averaging 42°C/km and a maximum bottom hole temperature of 66°C. This gradient is more than twice the background for Hawai'i and within a range of gradients measured in this depth range for some exploration wells within KERZ. We consider these results encouraging for $L\bar{a}na'i's$ resource potential and recommend following with a slim hole within $L\bar{a}na'i's$ caldera (our target zone) to ~ 2 km. Further, the positive implications such results have for the island of O‘ahu are substantial - the shield stage of O'ahu's volcanoes ended 1-2 My earlier. However, O'ahu uses more electricity than the rest of the islands combined, and the utility recently called for 500-700MW of firm, dispatchable renewable electricity on O'ahu by 2033. In Phase 3, we also collected limited new encouraging groundwater data, and updated our thoughts on the probabilities of fluid and permeability at resource depths (Pr F = 1; Pr P = mostly unconstrained). Ultimately, we advocate for using our final probability of heat, and confidence in this probability, to drive the next phase of exploration. We contend further development of geothermal in Hawai‘i will enable the state to achieve its 100% renewable policy objective and Hawai'i to transition off of fossil fuels through geothermal discovery and development. The project not only produced a large amount of data and expanded the existing knowledge of Hawai'i's geothermal resources, but also produced publications, theses, presentations, core photos, datasets, media reports, television interviews, community events, and a blog. Students and new professionals benefitted from the project's hands-on research experiences and educational opportunities and earned awards and recognition.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Underwater plasma breakdown characteristics with respect to highly pressurized drilling applications

Deep earth drilling is a key technique to extract oil, gas, and geothermal heat from the earth. Many complex energy focusing methods have been explored as an alternative approach to reach these resources but most of them require high energy. However, by utilizing short time span liquid plasma discharges, energy focusing can be achieved within traditional drilling systems. These discharges induce a rapid expansion process and a resulting shockwave. It is believed that this focused energy will lower the required cutting force to progress through the rock. Lowering the required cutting force will allow for lower drill bit wear, quicker rate of penetration, and an overall cost savings of the project. Plasma breakdown characteristics at drilling relevant pressures, ranging from 1 to 350 atm, were studied. A resistance–capacitance circuit with an air gapped spark switch was utilized to generate pulsed plasma between the pressurized electrodes. It was found that the required breakdown voltage increases as the pressure increases. It was also found that a plasma channel formation and an associated breakdown may or may not occur between the electrodes at different pressures due to variation in required breakdown voltages. Breakdown time-lag in the dielectric medium (tap water, 780 μS cm –1 ) increased as the pressure was increased, which indicated a higher voltage drop at higher pressures (>100 atm). The plasma generated cavitation bubble with an associated shockwave occurred as pressures were increased. However, the bubble radius and the bubble duration decreased as the pressure was increased. The plasma generated shockwave speeds fall within the expected speed of sound in water. Lastly, preliminary rock cracking tests were performed on granite at high pressures (340 and 272 atm) and it was found that plasma is able to create cracks in the rock.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) Science Plan

Mountains are the natural water towers of the world, effectively turning water vapor into readily available fresh water through precipitation, snowpack, and runoff. Unfortunately, Earth system models (ESMs) have persistently been unable to predict the timing and availability of water resources from mountains because the source(s) of model error are difficult to isolate in complex terrain with limited atmospheric or land-surface observations. Further complications arise from the gross scale mismatch between ESM grid box sizes and the relevant scales of mountainous hydrological processes. The mountain hydrometeorology community has repeatedly called for integrated atmospheric and land observations of water and energy budgets in complex terrain that span these scales to establish benchmarks against which scale-dependent models can be further developed.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Examining the Ice-Nucleating Particles from the North Slope of Alaska (ExINP-NSA) (Final Campaign Report)

The Examining the Ice-Nucleating Particles from the North Slope of Alaska (ExINP-NSA) campaign was conducted at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory (71.3230° N, 156.6114° W, “BRW” hereafter), next to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility NSA site and ~ 6 km northeast of the town of Utqiaġvik. The location of the NSA site is shown in Figure 1. Our observing period began in October 2021 and continued until May 2024. This campaign was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Early Career Research Program through grant number DE-SC001879. This grant contains funding for three ARM field campaigns. The previous field campaigns were performed at ARM’s Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory in Oklahoma (SGP; 36.6073° N, 97.4876° W) and the ARM’s Eastern North Atlantic atmospheric observatory on Graciosa Island, Azores (ENA; 39.0916° N, 28.0257° W). The ExINP-NSA campaign aims included: • Determining the number concentration of ice-nucleating particles (n INPs ) active at temperatures spanning the range of heterogeneous freezing processes (from ≈−30 °C to 0 °C) using a combination of online and offline measurements, • Determining whether local meteorological conditions and/or synoptic scale air mass transport impact INP abundance and/or ice nucleation efficiency, • Examining if the physicochemical properties of INPs relate to aerosol chemistry, and • Assessing if there is a similarity in INP properties across three ARM sites Multi-seasonal datasets of INP abundance in the NSA region were delivered from this campaign. This campaign also allowed researchers to perform a comprehensive analysis of atmospheric INPs based on long- term ground-based measurements in the Alaskan Arctic. Our data and results from the ExINP-NSA campaign will help refine current earth system models. One of the stated goals of ARM is to advance aerosol-cloud ice interaction, which will be a direct result of this campaign. Current earth system models poorly represent INPs, and the 15-minute time resolution data over several seasons generated during this campaign will provide an invaluable resource, especially combined with the datasets generated during two previous ARM ExINP campaigns. These datasets will allow for a greater understanding of ice nucleation processes as they may (or may not) relate to local meteorological processes and aerosol chemistry and will eventually help further the understanding of the Earth’s atmospheric processes and energy balance.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Biomanufacturing and bioprocessing of lunar regolith

Microbial biomanufacturing is important to accelerate lunar construction because it can leverage lunar material and waste streams as feedstocks to create a circular production system. In-space bio-mining and biomanufacturing using moon and asteroidal source material will enable the creation of infrastructure, produce industrial fuels and lubricants, and enable recovery of actinides and rare-earth elements (REEs) present in trace concentrations. Moreover, biomanufacturing in closed-loop systems (recycling and reuse of resources toward the establishment of a circular economy) will enable long-term lunar activities by recycling waste (CO 2 , gray water) and producing oxygen and biomaterials. Our response focuses on the use of lunar regolith and waste streams as feedstocks for protein and microbial-enabled biomining and bioprocessing to extract actinides and REEs, and to create biocomposites for lunar infrastructure. We envision an enclosed process that initiates with (1a) extracting actinides and REEs from lunar regolith using immobilized proteins, followed by (1b) creating biocomposites from the post-extracted lunar regolith for infrastructure, and (1c) cultivating diatoms and other microalgae on waste streams to harvest silica shells for incorporating into biocomposites and to generate O 2 for human respiration and/or producing refinable feedstocks. LLNL has significant expertise in all three processes and provides facilities, personnel, and expertise at the intersection of metal (lanthanide, actinide, transition) separations, purifications, biohydrometallurgy, radiobiochemistry, synthetic and systems biology, and materials science and engineering. Importantly, all three processes are relatively well-studied for Earth-based workflows and can be derisked for demonstration on the lunar surface by 2029.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗