ESA Lunar In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Concept Design and Breadboarding Activities

Paper number

IAC-10.A5.2.6

Author

Mr. Emanuele Monchieri, Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Scott Hovland, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands

Coauthor

Dr. Michèle Lavagna, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Tom Hoppenbrouwers, Space Applications Services, Belgium

Coauthor

Mr. Floriano Venditti, CGS S.p.A.Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio, Italy

Year

2010

Abstract

This paper addresses, starting from the background activities performed in the frame of the most relevant ESA projects in these last years on the subject, the intermediate results of the "ISRU Architecture and Technology Study"; in particular it focuses on the exploitation of ISRU for oxygen production in support of Lunar Exploration, the benefits and feasibility of which an Italian-Belgian consortium, consisted of Carlo Gavazzi Space, Politecnico di Milano (CMIC and DIA) and Space Applications Services, is performing for ESA in the frame of the AURORA Core Programme.

The paper gives an insight in the motivation, contents and main objectives of the ESA ISRU Study, and reviews the requirements and constraints of ISRU plant system and mission. Furthermore, it describes the trade-off analysis of the most promising ISRU chemical processes for the production of O\small 2 on the Moon and the selection of the reference one, for the following study phases; the trade-off addresses both issues strictly related to the different chemical processes and architectural issues rising from their implementation into a system. 

The conceptual design of the ISRU system, according to the selected O\small 2 production process, is then described; this includes the definition of all subsystems and the related supporting analyses. Moreover, the ISRU chemical process and system are modelled; the model is validated using the actual test data retrieved from breadboarding activities.

At the end, the paper reports the preliminary results obtained from the breadboarding activities, which have the aim to demonstrate the feasibility of the selected ISRU process and characterize its main performance aspects.

Abstract document

IAC-10.A5.2.6.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-10.A5.2.6.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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