Washington: NASA is planning to launch robotic missions to make water on the Moon in 2018 and oxygen on Mars in 2020.
The Moon mission will be the US space agency's first attempt to demonstrate in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) beyond Earth.
The purpose of ISRU, or "living off the land" is to harness and utilise space resources to create products and services which enable and significantly reduce the mass, cost, and risk of near-term and long-term space exploration.
"Every pound that you don't have to launch from the Earth of dumb mass - things like water and air and propellant - means that you can add a pound of intelligent mass - an experiment, a computer, something designed to accomplish some job or give us some capability," said lunar geologist Paul Spudis, with the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
"Doing ISRU gives you incredible leverage because you're changing the fraction of intelligent-to-dumb mass on your spacecraft in favour of the intelligent part," he said.
The first in-space ISRU test is targeted for 2018, 'Discovery News' reported.
NASA plans to launch a mission called Resource Prospector that includes a rover with instruments to scout for telltale hydrogen, drill out samples, heat them and scan for water vapour and other volatiles on the moon.
Vapour also could be re-condensed to form a drop of water.
"A lot of the technologies have broader use than just lunar...it's just a convenient location to be testing the ISRU technology," said Jason Crusan, director of Advanced Exploration Systems at NASA headquarters in Washington DC.
A second ISRU experiment is due to be aboard NASA's next Mars rover, which is slated for launch in 2020.
The device, which is yet to be selected, would pull carbon dioxide from the planet's atmosphere, filter out dust and other particles and prepare the gas for chemical processing into oxygen.
The demonstration also could include actual oxygen production, the report said.
The Moon mission will be the US space agency's first attempt to demonstrate in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) beyond Earth.
The purpose of ISRU, or "living off the land" is to harness and utilise space resources to create products and services which enable and significantly reduce the mass, cost, and risk of near-term and long-term space exploration.
"Doing ISRU gives you incredible leverage because you're changing the fraction of intelligent-to-dumb mass on your spacecraft in favour of the intelligent part," he said.
Advertisement
NASA plans to launch a mission called Resource Prospector that includes a rover with instruments to scout for telltale hydrogen, drill out samples, heat them and scan for water vapour and other volatiles on the moon.
Advertisement
"A lot of the technologies have broader use than just lunar...it's just a convenient location to be testing the ISRU technology," said Jason Crusan, director of Advanced Exploration Systems at NASA headquarters in Washington DC.
Advertisement
The device, which is yet to be selected, would pull carbon dioxide from the planet's atmosphere, filter out dust and other particles and prepare the gas for chemical processing into oxygen.
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
SpaceX To Launch First Uncrewed Starships To Mars In 2 Years: Elon Musk NASA Spacecraft Collision May Have Created A Meteor Shower That Will Hit Earth In... US Sees Potential Iran Transfer Of Missiles To Russia As Alarming NSA Ajit Doval To Visit Moscow For Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks: Sources 'No NRC Application Number, No Aadhaar': Himanta Sarma's Big Warning How US Right-Wing Social Media Influencers Became Russia's "Useful Idiots" "Begged Her Not To Go": Teacher Of American Woman Shot In Head By Israel CBSE Board Exams 2025: Check Last Date For Registration Of Candidates Scared After Failing Exam, Noida Boys Run Away From School, Found In Delhi Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.