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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Surface Missions for Resource Reconnaissance: NASA's PRIME-1 and VIPER

In 2019 NASA announced it would return to the Moon where it would seek to establish a sustainable lunar presence. In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is a critical part of the infrastructure needed to sustain and grow human surface exploration. NASA further codified its ISRU intentions with the release of the Moon to Mars objectives in 2022, which calls out specific infrastructure goals, and in the release of the Architecture Definition Document in 2023. While there are a variety of resources that are of interest, including oxygen from regolith minerals, water is a game changing resource for in-situ consumable and propellant production. NASA’s intention of targeting of the lunar polar region for Artemis is, in part due to the potential of water resources there.

Lunar↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Protecting Crew and Surface Systems with a Long-Duration Lunar Safe Haven

NASA’s Artemis program will send astronauts to the lunar surface for extended mission durations throughout the 2030s, with a focus on sustainability and extensibility for Mars exploration, as described in NASA’s “Artemis Plan”. However, NASA must place more emphasis on protecting both the crew and the exploration surface systems if they hope to achieve long-duration sustainability on the lunar surface. It is now reasonably achievable with excavation, construction, and autonomy technologies to achieve a significant level of protection that architectures have been unable to achieve to date. The Lunar Safe Haven (LSH) was proposed to protect astronauts, electronics, and other surface exploration systems from the hazards of the lunar environment, including radiation, micrometeoroid strikes, lunar dust, thermal vacuum, etc. During the study, Level Zero Requirements were developed for the LSH, and a decision analysis framework was baselined to evaluate concepts. The LSH Study also performed a comprehensive trade study, during which it identified numerous alternatives for establishing and maintaining a safe haven shelter on the lunar surface. This paper reviews the products developed during the study and presents the final recommendations.

radiation shielding↗

NASA NTRS2008

In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) to Support the Lunar Outpost and the Rationale for Precursor Missions

One of the ways that the Constellation Program can differ from Apollo is to employ a live-off-the-land or In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) supported architecture. The options considered over the past decades for using indigenous materials have varied considerably in terms of what resources to attempt to acquire, how much to acquire, and what the motivations are to acquiring these resources. The latest NASA concepts for supporting the lunar outpost have considered many of these plans and compared these options to customers requirements and desires. Depending on the architecture employed, ISRU technologies can make a significant contribution towards a sustainable and affordable lunar outpost. While extensive ground testing will reduce some mission risk, one or more flight demonstrations prior to the first crew's arrival will build confidence and increase the chance that outpost architects will include ISRU as part of the early outpost architecture. This presentation includes some of the options for using ISRU that are under consideration for the lunar outpost, the precursor missions that would support these applications, and a notional timeline to allow the lessons learned from the precursor missions to support outpost hardware designs.

Simon, Thomas M.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Reliable, Fault-Tolerant Autonomous Lunar Habitats with High-Performance Spaceflight Computing

The lunar surface presents unfavorable constraints and harsh living conditions. To address these challenges, autonomous habitats will require complex integrated systems that combine advanced software, high-performance hardware, and cutting-edge sensors to ensure sustainability, safety, and operational efficiency. Consequently, maintaining a sustainable presence on the Moon requires reliable infrastructure and efficient development, precise monitoring, and utilization of resources within a lunar installation. These elements are essential not only to ensure that lunar settlement can be long-term, self-sustaining, and resource-efficient, but also to serve as a foundation for future missions and eventual human habitation on Mars. Humans are not native to the Moon; therefore, our survival and ability to thrive will depend on autonomous systems that can foster safety and resilience through high-availability architectures, graceful degradation, and highly fault-tolerant spaceflight hardware capable of continuing operation during failures. This requires advanced human-rated distributed systems architectures with specialized electronics, scalable capabilities, and an integrated design approach. Unlike current practices focused on short-term missions and regularly maintained components, permanent lunar compute systems must be designed for extended operations beyond mission durations. This paper explores the necessity of transitioning toward fault- tolerant, highly autonomous hardware systems designed for multi-year missions. It also identifies critical subsystems that require high levels of autonomy, supported by radiation-hardened processors and extreme thermal loads, which are essential to mitigate long-term degradation and ensure sustainable lunar habitation. Finally, the paper aligns with NASA’s identified Civil Space Shortfalls, particularly in high-performance onboard computing, advanced data acquisition, extreme-environment avionics, radiation monitoring and countermeasures, and autonomous health management. It proposes NASA’s new High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor as a turnkey solution, delivering 100 times the performance-per-watt of legacy rad-hard CPUs and enabling onboard AI, edge computing, and fault-tolerant features essential for sustained lunar autonomy and beyond.

Sarkis S Mikaelian↗

NASA NTRS2023

Gateway Integrated Environmental Control and Life Support System Overview and Status

The Gateway will be a lunar orbiting platform that is a critical element in establishing a sustainable, long-term human presence on the lunar surface and beyond to deep space exploration. As part of this mission, the Gateway Environmental Control and Life Support Subsystem (ECLSS), employs its capabilities to: - Support two to four-person crew expeditions for at least 30 days, approximately once every one to three years with extended periods of dormancy, - Provide life support functionality during nominal and contingency scenarios, - Support crew expeditions to the Lunar surface by providing a Habitable volume, from which staging, or preparation can take place for missions to the Lunar surface or to deep space destinations, and - Facilitate a platform to demonstrate the necessary capabilities to expand a sustainable human presence into Deep Space, including the surface of the Moon and Mars. The Gateway consists of an assembly of modules provided by commercial and international partnerships with varied capability that, together, achieve these objectives. The Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) and International Habitat (I-Hab) modules provide the air revitalization and conditioning capabilities for the Gateway with some ECLSS functionality provided in the other modules to support crew operations. This paper explains the architecture of the Gateway ECLSS and provides the status of its development.

Gateway↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Parametric Cost Analysis of Refueling Options in Cislunar Space

Over the next several years NASA intends to develop and maintain a sustained human presence in cislunar space and on the surface of the Moon. The sustained lunar presence will then serve as a steppingstone for human missions to Mars. To propel the spacecraft taking humans and cargo to and from the lunar surface and to and from Mars will require on the order of hundreds of tons of propellant. Single-use refueling elements (expendable tankers) may be more cost-effective for smaller campaigns, but as the propellant demand grows, so does the potential for a cost benefit from reusable tankers. The cost of two different architectures for delivering propellant to cislunar space was estimated and compared. The first architecture relies on expendable tankers for propellant delivery while the second architecture reuses every element, including launch vehicle stages. The study determined that if the cost of reusing refueling tankers is consistent with the current state of the art, the expendable refueling architecture is more cost effective. However, refinements of the methods used to estimate launch and tanker reuse costs are needed to provide more precise estimates of the breakeven point.

Daniel J Tiffin↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Space Superhighway: A Cost Analysis of an In-Space Logistics Resupply Network

The Space Superhighway is a concept for an in-space logistics network for payload delivery and propellant resupply within the Earth-Moon system. It is expected that in the next several years the number of spacecraft in cislunar space will increase significantly. Commercial launch service providers have significantly reduced the cost of access to space and reduced the barrier to entry for private companies to build and operate their own satellites. Many of these newer satellites are being designed to take advantage of future In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities. In addition, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intends to develop and maintain a sustained human presence in cislunar space and on the surface of the Moon. The sustained lunar presence will then serve as a steppingstone for human missions to Mars. The combined demand for propellant resupply and payload delivery in cislunar space for NASA's Moon to Mars campaign in addition to commercial ventures will likely exceed 1,000 t in the upcoming decades. This work presents a concept for an in-space logistics network to fulfill that demand. The network consists of commercial launch vehicles, propellant tankers, orbital depots, and in-space electric propulsion tugs. This work specifically analyzes the cost of developing, producing, and operating such a network at varying levels of customer demand.

nrho↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Space Superhighway: A Cost Analysis of an In-Space Logistics Resupply Network

space superhighway↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Lunar Mining and Processing: Considerations for Responsible Space Mining & Connections to Terrestrial Mining

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America (US) has initiated the Artemis Moon to Mars program to send astronauts (the first woman and person of color) back to the lunar surface, create a sustainable human lunar exploration program, and lead the first human exploration mission to the Mars surface in the late 2030’s [1]. Besides reinvigorating human exploration beyond low Earth orbit not seen since the Apollo program and enabling new scientific activities and discoveries, a major objective of this program is to characterize the resources that exist on the Moon and Mars, and learn how to utilize them for human exploration and the commercialization of cis-lunar space. Commonly known as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), the search for, acquisition, and processing of resources in space has the potential to greatly reduce the dependency on transporting mission consumables and infrastructure from Earth, thereby reducing mission costs, risks, and dependency on Earth. With the launch of Artemis I in November 2022 and the anticipation of several robotic missions to the Moon under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, greater recognition and excitement about NASA’s Artemis program and lunar exploration activities is growing in the public. With the recognition that past statements and concept videos of human exploration of the Moon are actually becoming real, there is also a growing awareness of the possible positive and negative consequences and impacts these exploration activities may have on the Moon and Mars. On the positive side, the development of ISRU and lunar mining and processing can enable and grow lunar surface exploration and cis-lunar commercial activities, as well as provide benefits to terrestrial industries through spin-in and spin-back of advanced technologies and autonomous operations. On the negative side, there is a perception that space mining will impact the lunar surface and environment negatively for science, and that cultural beliefs about the Moon need to be addressed and considered before these operations occur. This paper will begin to explore the potential driving attributes and guidelines that will address how best to maximize the lessons and connections to terrestrial mining to reduce the risk and cost of lunar ISRU and space commercial activities, enhance efforts to achieve the terrestrial ‘mine of the future’, and provide viable markets for space-derived technologies until commercial space mining is established. This paper will also begin to explore the potential driving attributes and guidelines that could address how to minimize the environmental and surface impacts of lunar ISRU and foster ‘responsible’ space mining that can be implemented until more official agreements and treaties are signed. The existing robust mining regulations adopted globally will be used as a basis for this examination and suggestions will be presented to adopt these agreements for use in space mining.

ISRU↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Back to Stay: NASA’s Campaign to Sustainably Return Humans to the Moon

The Artemis program has catalyzed NASA to develop principles of sustainability as the agency and its partners contemplate returning humans to the Moon, and then to Mars, for long-term exploration. The Office of Chief Scientist collaborates with directorates within NASA, as well as with other government agencies and stakeholders, to represent the scientific endeavors in the agency, including developing a working definition of sustainability. The stays on the lunar surface under the Artemis program will be longer that those via the Apollo missions. Studying the requirements, challenges, and lessons learned from decades of human spaceflight and from analog sites in hostile environments on Earth will inform a framework for human sustainability requirements. This paper will provide an overview of the core sustainability goals as identified by NASA’s Office of the Chief Scientist and describe several activities underway to support a broad-based lunar program with a long-term view of success and achievement.

analog↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Centennial Challenges Program: A Pathway to Sustainable Lunar Presence

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Centennial Challenges↗

NASA NTRS2022

Repeatable Method for Conducting Chamber Studies of Aerosolized Lunar Simulant

The Artemis Mission goal of returning humans to the Moon requires new solutions to engineering problems posed by the extremely harsh environment of the lunar surface. Using the Apollo missions as historical evidence, dust will be a significant obstacle in the success of a sustained human and robotic presence. Hardware such as tools, machinery, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) suits, and components of landers and habitats will all be subject to various degrees of contamination by lunar dust, and each piece of hardware has its own considerations for performance under dusty conditions. Such hardware must be tested and verified for use during lunar missions under guidance from NASA technical standards. Aerosolized dust can be used to test and verify hardware in two ways: volumetric and surface area loading. Volumetric loading (measured in mass of airborne dust per volume of air) may cause hardware to malfunction via dust ingestion or other mechanisms. Surface area loading (measured in mass of settled dust per surface area) may cause hardware to malfunction by altering its thermal properties or by fouling optical surfaces such as camera lenses. This publication describes a method to achieve a stable, user-determined volumetric loading in an arbitrary chamber along with recommendations for how to use such chambers for customized hardware testing.

Benjamin J Sumlin↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

When the Eyes Don't Have It: Autonomous Control of Deep Space Vehicles for Human Spaceflight

NASA has been charged with expanding human presence into the solar system. The next phase of exploration will focus on learning how to develop and sustain habitats on the moon for eventual missions to Mars. The Gateway Lunar Orbiting Platform (G-LOP) is a modular spacecraft being built for cis-lunar orbit and offers a true deep space environment for gaining experience for human missions to Mars. The mission concept for Gateway involves long uncrewed periods between missions; therefore, Gateway requires increased self-reliance to separate the spacecraft from Earth-bound control and oversight. This complicates the human-in-the-loop (HITL) concept and requires major adjustments to the traditional automation human-computer interaction paradigm. This paper discusses the design, development, and verification of complex human-computer interactions with the autonomous systems managers which will control the Gateway spacecraft.

Julia M. Badger↗

NASA NTRS2024

Orbital Debris and the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office

This submission includes 11 presentations prepared by NASA for the Trilateral Safety & Mission Assurance (SMA) Conference from June 24-26th at the ESA Centre for Earth Observation. These presentations encompass various safety & mission assurance topics focused on the conference themes of lunar exploration, space sustainability, new commercial partners & challenges, digital engineering, and the assurance of new technologies. These presentations will be shared amongst an international community of SMA practitioners & leadership to promote mutual dialogue on initiatives & challenges of SMA in an evolving spaceflight field.

OSIRIS↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Gateway: Humanity’s Next Utilization Platform

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Gateway Program is an international collaboration to establish humanity’s first space station in lunar orbit. Gateway is a critical element of the Artemis missions that will create a sustained human presence on and around the Moon and chart a path for human missions to Mars. As a platform for science, Gateway builds on decades of success on the International Space Station by extending utilization capabilities from low-Earth orbit to deep space to leverage opportunities specific to the deep space lunar environment. NASA leads the Gateway Program and serves as the integrator of spaceflight capabilities and contributions of U.S. commercial and international partners, including the European Space Agency (ESA), Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), to develop Gateway and leverage unique opportunities presented by its location in deep space. This paper provides: Gateway spacecraft overview, internal and external accommodations, resources for utilization, and vantage point for Earth, Sun, and Moon observations. Three utilization payloads have already been selected to fly on Gateway as part of the initial modules, the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) and Power and Propulsion Element (PPE): European Radiation Sensors Array (ERSA), Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES), and Internal Dosimeter Array (IDA). This paper will provide a short summary of each payload, the value behind conducting each payload, and share an overview of future utilization goals of Gateway.

Stephanie Buskirk Dudley↗

NASA NTRS2022

Regenerative Life Support Systems for Exploration Habitats: Unique Capabilities and Challenges to Enable Long-Duration-Mission Habitats Beyond Low Earth Orbit

The Artemis I launch of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion crew vehicle will mark a major milestone in the agency’s efforts to return humans to the Moon. Work is underway on the Human Landing System that will carry the next astronauts to the lunar surface, and the lunar orbiting Gateway that will host science and serve as a platform to support sustained human presence on the Moon and ultimately crewed missions to Mars. Two decades of continuous human presence on the International Space Station has provided a wealth of experience operating, upgrading, and demonstrating advanced Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (Regen ECLSS). However, habitats that enable sustained lunar surface presence and transit to Mars will encounter many unique conditions and challenges. System characteristics including reliability, maintainability, mass, and power become significantly more critical. Operating environments associated with lower total pressure, low gravity, contingency protocols, and extensive un-crewed and dormant periods impose additional functionality requirements and alter the performance of certain critical systems. Integration and combined operations with other elements such as orbiting outposts, logistics suppliers, and mobility platforms impact capability and interface requirements. Limits on allocated water and oxygen consumable mass influence the need for higher levels of water and oxygen recovery from waste products. Impacts and challenges these unique exploration circumstances impose on the suite of Regen ECLSS systems are explored and discussed herein.

David F Howard↗

NASA NTRS2005

Non-Intrusive Techniques of Inspections During the Pre-Launch Phase of Space Vehicle

This paper addresses a method of non-intrusive local inspection of surface and sub-surface conditions, interfaces, laminations and seals in both space vehicle and ground operations with an integrated suite of imaging sensors during pre-launch operations. It employs an advanced Raman spectrophotometer with additional spectrophotometers and lidar mounted on a flying robot to constantly monitor the space hardware as well as inner surface of the vehicle and ground operations hardware. This paper addresses a team of micro flying robots with necessary sensors and photometers to monitor the entire space vehicle internally and externally. The micro flying robots can reach altitude with least amount of energy, where astronauts have difficulty in reaching and monitoring the materials and subsurface faults. The micro flying robot has an embedded fault detection system which acts as an advisory system and in many cases micro flying robots act as a Supervisor to fix the problems. As missions expand to a sustainable presence in the Moon, and extend for durations longer than one year in lunar outpost, the effectiveness of the instrumentation and hardware has to be revolutionized if NASA is to meet high levels of mission safety, reliability, and overall success. The micro flying robot uses contra-rotating propellers powered by an ultra-thin, ultrasonic motor with currently the world's highest power weight ratio, and is balanced in mid-air by means of the world's first stabilizing mechanism using a linear actuator. The essence of micromechatronics has been brought together in high-density mounting technology to minimize the size and weight. The robot can take suitable payloads of photometers, embedded chips for image analysis and micro pumps for sealing cracks or fixing other material problems. This paper also highlights advantages that this type of non-intrusive techniques offer over costly and monolithic traditional techniques.

Thirumalainambi, Rejkumar↗

NASA NTRS2019

New Technologies for Enabling Food Production Beyond LEO

NASA has identified the need for robust and sustainable ‘Pick-and-Eat’ systems for supplementing crew diets with fresh leafy green crops in near-term LEO (Low Earth Orbit), cislunar, and lunar missions. Spaceflight plant growth systems have been primarily designed for conducting space biology studies, but these systems are not optimal for sustained food production. Improved water and nutrient delivery subsystems that do not use bulky and non-reusable media are needed for decreasing the mass of the food production system. Autonomous technologies for monitoring plant health and food safety are needed for ensuring that the food produced is suitable supplementing crew diets with fresh, nutritious salad crops. Improved plant imaging techniques used for high-throughput phenotyping can be leveraged for monitoring plant health. Near-real-time measurements of the microbial ecology of food production systems are needed for assessing food safety. Furthermore, newly identified plant species and cultivars with improved growth habits and contents of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals when grown in spaceflight environmental conditions are needed. These improvements in food production technologies will enable the design of sustainable life support systems for manned exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit.

Monje Mejia, Oscar A.↗