The Space Resource Newsletter - September 2020
The NASA Artemis project will cost $28 billion, but is still on track for first launch in late 2021.. Credit: NASA.
Welcome to The Space Resource monthly newsletter for September 2020. NASA announces a program to pay for lunar samples, a large asteroid found within Venus’ orbit, and China preparing to launch lunar and asteroid missions.
Looking for prior newsletters? View the archive here. We welcome all story ideas, so please contact us with any ideas. If you are not already subscribed to this newsletter, please consider subscribing here. If you enjoy our work, please consider supporting us on Patreon.
Want to learn more about space resources? Checkout The Space Resource Report! We highlighted the major developments surrounding space resources in 2019, covering the science, technology, business, and policy developments that will invigorate humanity’s expansion into space.
Asteroids
A two km asteroid found within Venus’ orbit. This discovery by the Zwicky Transient Facility is unexpected because previous models did not predict any asteroids this large within Venus’ orbit. Spectral analysis indicates that this asteroid, 2020 AV2, is likely an S-type asteroid that is composed mostly of siliceous (stony) material. This is the most common asteroid type, and potentially originated from the inner main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Either this asteroid is a one-off anomaly or a member of an entirely new asteroid family. N-body simulations indicate that 2020 AV2 is in a stable orbit on a million year timescale, however, it may eventually get ejected from the Solar System after a gravitational encounter with the terrestrial planets and Jupiter, or collide with Mercury. This discovery is worthwhile to space resources because it represents one and possibly more resource targets that are easier to reach than asteroids in the Main Belt. Link.
Private Chinese firm launching asteroid mining demo mission in November. Called the NEO-1, Beijing based Origin Space is preparing to launch a 30 kg spacecraft into a 500 km orbit aboard a Long March rocket. This demonstration mission is similar to what TransAstra is planning for their MiniBee demonstration mission: a NIAC Phase 3 funded project to launch a SmallSat with asteroid simulant and demonstrate capture and processing of it (checkout this recent update by TransAstra CEO Joel Sercel). It is unknown whether Origin Space is going to initially focus on water or metal based processing for the asteroid mining systems. Link.
MarS
More subglacial lakes found below Mars’ south pole. Beyond the first subglacial lake identified two years ago, three smaller lakes have been found nearby. Each of these underground lakes is likely very salty, allowing them to resist freezing. Radar sounding from the ESA Mars Express orbiter was used to identify all of these underground lakes. While we don’t know if these lakes contain life, they represent a tantalizing way to learn more about Mars’ past. DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1200-6.
Moon
NASA is willing to pay commercial firms for lunar regolith. As part of a solicitation open until October 9, NASA is seeking proposals from contractors for how they can collect 50 to 500 g of lunar regolith from the lunar surface by mid-2024. Once the resources are collected and location tagged, transfer of ownership will occur in-place (i.e. on the Moon’s surface). 10% of the funds will be paid up front, with an additional 10% paid upon launch and the remaining 80% paid upon successful completion of the mission. NASA’s Administrator Jim Bridenstein has explicitly stated that this process will be fully compliant with Article II of the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits celestial bodies from being appropriated by countries.
Made In Space discusses what an integrated lunar manufacturing system would look like. To support a sustainable presence on the Moon, expansive manufacturing capabilities would be required. Ideally using in-situ resources, such a system would allow the full construction of surface structures, ground infrastructure, and industrial components. Made In Space envisions such a system having welding capabilities for joining and cutting operations, a bulk manufacturing capability for brick and structural component manufacturing, and a precision manufacturing capability for making fasteners and connectors. Manufacturing is a complex activity requiring many specialized machines; the space based equivalent will likely focus initially on specific functions, but will need to expand to cover most terrestrial manufacturing processes. Link.
NASA announces Artemis program to cost $28 billion. The first tranche of $3.2 billion needs Congressional approval before Christmas this year. The overall program continues to be on track for launching Artemis I in November 2021, which will be an uncrewed test of the SLS rocket and Orion capsule. As NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein mentioned in a recent press phone briefing, the largest challenge for the program is political. Let’s hope this time is different from the cancelled Constellation and Journey to Mars programs.
China preparing for November sample return mission. The Chang’e 5 mission will land near Mons Rumker on the near side of the Moon, collect samples over a lunar day (14 Earth days), and return the samples to Earth. This would be the first time lunar samples have been returned to Earth since the 1970s. After liftoff from the Moon, the ascent vehicle will rendezvous with an orbiting service module, transfer the sample, and perform a skip reentry maneuver to slow down before landing in Inner Mongolia. While complex, this is a practice run for future human missions that may use a similar architecture. This mission was originally planned for 2017, but the Long March 5 failure delayed that until now. Link.
Earth’s oxygen may be causing lunar iron to rust. Shuai Li, lead author on the 2018 paper that showed direct evidence of surface water ice on the Moon, recently published a paper showing the oxidized iron mineral hematite near the lunar poles. Using hyperspectral reflectance data from the M3 instrument on the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, Li and co-authors noticed spectral signature of hematite. This is unexpected because hematite is produced when iron reacts with oxygen, yet the Moon’s surface is nearly devoid of oxygen. The lunar hematite is located at high latitudes, correlating with the high water content at similar latitudes, and more concentrated on the nearside. Oxygen blown off Earth’s atmosphere may be the source of the oxygen needed for this reaction, however, confirming this will require direct samples, something a future mission can accomplish. Link.
Small rover for Masten’s XL-1 CLPS lander completes preliminary design review (PDR). Developed by Carnegie Mellon University, the MoonRanger rover is an autonomous rover that will search for water ice at the lunar poles. Because it is only battery powered, its lower power design requires it to autonomously jaunt away from the lander, collect observations, and return to the lander before its data can be relayed back to Earth. MoonRanger will carry the NASA developed Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) that will allow it to measure the amount of hydrogen in the top layer of lunar regolith. XL-1 and MoonRanger are planned to launch in 2022. Link.
Terrestrial
Microsoft announces satellite ground link service. Called Azure Orbital, Microsoft’s new service will allow satellites to directly connect to its Azure cloud network. This will compete directly with Amazon’s AWS Ground Station. Both Amazon and Microsoft pitch these services as allowing customers to innovate and process large satellite datasets quicker than alternative architectures. Link.
NASA testing metallic glass gears able to survive extreme cold. Permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) at the lunar poles present some of the coldest known places in the Solar System, reaching temperatures as cold as 40 K. Traditional metal components often become very brittle at these temperatures, requiring the use of valuable energy to heat components to prevent shattering when they experience shock loads. One potential solution to this is to use materials that can withstand extreme temperatures, such as metallic glass. NASA tested this material for gears within a gearbox. When chilled down with liquid nitrogen to -173 C, the components were able to survive target shock loads without damage. Novel solutions like this will be required for equipment that needs to operate within PSRs. Link.
Metal powder fuel tested on sounding rocket. The percolating reaction-diffusion waves (Perwaves) is a technique of setting metal powder on fire within a chamber. This experiment’s goals are to study the optimal ratio of oxygen and metal powder, and the ideal size of metal dust to create the best conditions for combustion. Due to the powder clumping in gravity, this experiment requires micro-gravity. A Texus-56 sounding rocket was used for this test, but future experiments aim to use the International Space Station for longer duration tests. In addition to showing the need for in-orbit scientific research stations, this hints at the opportunity for novel techniques that space provides. DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.07.033.
China tests first reusable spacecraft in 2 day flight. This test is part of China’s push to provide rout-trip transportation to space at an affordable cost. Little information is actually known about this spacecraft and no images have been published yet.
