NASA Tests Lunar Rovers and Oxygen Production Technology

Nov. 13, 2008

Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668
grey.hautaluoma-1@xxxxxxxx

RELEASE: 08-288

NASA TESTS LUNAR ROVERS AND OXYGEN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

HILO, Hawaii -- NASA has concluded nearly two weeks of testing
equipment and lunar rover concepts on Hawaii's volcanic soil. The
agency's In Situ Resource Utilization Project, which studies ways
astronauts can use resources found at landing sites, demonstrated how
people might prospect for resources on the moon and make their own
oxygen from lunar rocks and soil.

The tests helped NASA gain valuable information about systems that
could enable a sustainable and affordable lunar outpost by minimizing
the amount of water and oxygen that must be transported from Earth.
The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, known
as PISCES and based at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, hosted the
tests. Research teams and NASA experts held the tests of several
NASA-developed systems in Hawaii because its volcanic soil is very
similar to regolith, the moon's soil.

NASA's lunar exploration plan currently projects that on-site lunar
resources could generate one to two metric tons of oxygen annually.
This is roughly the amount of oxygen that four to six people living
at a lunar outpost might breathe in a year. The field demonstrations
in Hawaii showed how lunar materials might be extracted. It also
showcased the hydrogen reduction system used to manufacture oxygen
from those materials and how the oxygen would be stored. These
experiments help engineers and scientists spot complications that
might not be obvious in laboratories.

A prototype system combines a polar prospecting rover and a drill
specifically designed to penetrate the harsh lunar soil. The rover's
system demonstrates small-scale oxygen production from regolith. A
similar rover could search for water ice and volatile gases such as
hydrogen, helium, and nitrogen, in the permanently shadowed craters
of the moon's poles. Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh built
the rover, which carries equipment known as the Regolith and
Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction.

Larger, complementary systems that might produce oxygen from soil on
an outpost-sized scale are known as ROxygen and the Precursor ISRU
Lunar Oxygen Testbed, or PILOT.

A NASA-developed robotic excavator known as Cratos collected soil for
the ROxygen system. Also tested was an excavator developed by
Lockheed Martin of Denver that uses a bucket drum to collect and
deliver soil to PILOT.

Other tested concepts include a new lunar wheel Michelin North
America
of Greenville, S.C. developed; a lunar sample coring drill the
Northern Centre for Advanced Technology in Canada developed for NASA
with support from the Canadian Space Agency, or CSA; and a night
vision camera called TriDAR for the rover's navigation and drill site
selection. Neptec in Canada developed the camera with support from
CSA.

Additional instruments that were field tested will be used to improve
understanding of minerals found on the moon. They include a Mossbauer
spectrometer from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and the
University of Mainz in Germany; an X-ray diffraction unit called mini
CheMIN from NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and
the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; and a handheld
Raman spectrometer CSA provided.

CSA also provided a utility support vehicle from Ontario Drive Gear
for personnel and hardware transportation on site as well as to
evaluate mobility attributes for future human and project-related
lunar mobility platforms. Representatives of the German Space Agency
demonstrated an autonomous mole drill technology developed for Mars
exploration that might be used in future lunar robotic missions.

In addition to tests in laboratories and rock yards, NASA conducts
tests at sites around the world known as analogs because they
simulate the moonscape and other extreme environments. These analog
activities take place in remote field locations where NASA can
evaluate the interactions of multiple mission systems relating to
mobility, infrastructure, and effectiveness in harsh climates.
Hawaii's volcanic terrain, rock distribution and soil materials
provide a high-quality simulation of the moon's polar region. Early
demonstrations provide valuable information for subsequent hardware
and mission concept development.

These advanced capabilities are being developed by the Exploration
Technology Development Program of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission
Directorate. The program is managed at NASA's Langley Research Center
in Hampton, Va., with project teams from NASA's Johnson Space Center;
NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif., NASA's Ames Research Center, and CSA. The collaboration also
involves NASA's Innovative Partnership Program and PISCES.

To learn more about NASA's plans for living and working on the moon,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

For more information about PISCES, visit:

http://pisces.uhh.hawaii.edu

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