Resource Prospector - USRA-Houston · Commercial partnerships 2022 2015 RP worked partnerships with...
Transcript of Resource Prospector - USRA-Houston · Commercial partnerships 2022 2015 RP worked partnerships with...
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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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)?
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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):
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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RP Environmental Testing Vibe testing
Z-axis testing of RP15 rover
OVEN in vibe
Drill in vibe
X/Y-axes testing
of RP15 rover
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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.
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Let’s go.