Practical Applications Of Asteroidal Isru In Support Of Human Exploration

Keywords

Figure of merit; Granvik model; Hill Sphere; Marman clamp; Optical mining; Roche limit; SpaceX

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of emerging technical approaches to asteroid in situ resource utilization (ISRU), technical challenges, and potential benefits and provides an overview of how the near-Earth object (NEO) missions may provide an ideal platform for development and demonstration of asteroid ISRU technologies. Asteroid ISRU has recently come under serious considerations because it offers the following advantages: 1. ubiquitous availability of asteroids in the region of space between Earth and Mars, 2. commonality of asteroid ISRU techniques in support of human exploration may be implemented at the Martian moons, especially Deimos, 3. the fact that a subset of the NEO population represents the most easily accessed objects in the solar system, with return trip δVs to low Earth orbit or lunar distant retrograde orbit that are significantly lower than that of the Moon or Mars, 4. the fact that most small, volatile-rich NEOs are undifferentiated and have well-constrained mineralogies and therefore do not need the type of material resource prospecting for ISRU that is required of planetary resource mining operations typical of terrestrial, lunar, or Martian mining operations-i.e., physical/chemical information from a region of the object is sufficient to determine the bulk surface characteristics of the full object, 5.NEO resources represent a nearly ideally located source of propellants for cislunar and trans-Mars transportation networks due to their energetic proximity to the top of the terrestrial gravity well.

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Publication Title

Primitive Meteorites and Asteroids: Physical, Chemical, and Spectroscopic Observations Paving the Way to Exploration

Number of Pages

477-524

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813325-5.00009-4

Socpus ID

85060256270 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85060256270

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