2 research outputs found
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The European Space Agency (ESA) moon challenge: Pandeia team technical report
The ESA Moon Challenge was an International Student Contest that focused on human-robotic partnership for lunar exploration as part of the Symposium Moon 2020-2030: A new Era of Human and Robotic Exploration. The Challenge required participants to design mission scenarios for ESA’s HERACLES study. The Pandeia proposal aims to establish the groundwork for permanent human presence and exploration of the Moon through a cost reduction approach, focused on reusability and in situ resource utilization (ISRU). The proposal consists of four trips to the lunar surface in a landing site near the South Pole. These trips are a progressive and realistic set of technology development and demonstration missions, which build the basics for a lunar ISRU infrastructure and eventually lead to the resumption of human operations on the lunar surface. The diversity of the Pandeia Team, formed by alumni of the International Space University, allowed the team to cover many of the most important aspects of the problem, from science goals and engineering to outreach considerations
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NASA’s in-situ materials challenge: team ISU final report
Transforming in situ materials such as regolith or basalt into useful structural elements is a significant way to reduce the mass of materials launched as payload from Earth. Considering exploration on Mars, for every kilogram of native materials used, one saves 11 kg of transportation propellant and spacecraft mass required to launch to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Given the cost for LEO is US110,000/kg of cost by using 1 kg of in situ materials, making space pioneering on Mars more affordable and feasible. One could use surface-based materials such as regolith or basalt to produce structural elements that can be interconnected to create launch/landing pads; blast protection berms; roads and walkways; radiation, thermal, and micro-meteorite shielding insulation and structures; equipment shelters; pressure vessels for fluids storage; ablative atmospheric entry heat shields; construction foundations; and other useful structures