- For the first time, a system will produce
a valuable byproduct from an extraterrestrial source. In January 2002,
that system will suck in Martian atmospheric gases -- predominately carbon
dioxide -- and process them to produce pure oxygen.
-
- This could be seen as the space exploration
equivalent of standing on the brink of the Industrial Revolution, but with
a gigantic resource base -- all the materials found on planets, their satellites,
and asteroids in the solar system.
-
- Professor K.R. Sridhar and his 20-member
team at The University of Arizona Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
(AME) Department are now building that system, which they call an Oxygen
Generating Subsystem (OGS).
-
- "This is a landmark experiment,"
Sridhar says. "It is the first time in human history that we will
produce a consumable of use to humans from extraterrestrial resources."
-
- The oxygen could be used as a propellant
in rocket motors or for life support for humans on Mars. (Since this is
a demonstration experiment, the oxygen will not be put to immediate use
on the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander.)
-
- But Sridhar hopes to have an experiment
aboard the Mars Surveyor 2003 mission that will produce both fuel and oxygen
from Martian resources. In that case, the oxygen and fuel would be used
to launch a small rocket from the surface of Mars or to power a drill that
would take core samples of the Martian surface.
-
- "In the larger scheme of things,
in 2007 we hope to perform a sample return mission that will rely on the
propellant production technology we are developing to produce both the
fuel and oxygen for a rocket to bring the sample back to Earth," Sridhar
says. "We are working very vigorously on this."
-
- The OGS will fly to Mars aboard Mars
Surveyor 2001, which is scheduled to land on the Red Planet on Jan. 22,
2002.
-
- Once on Mars, it will use solid oxide
electrolysis to produce oxygen. The technology is based on an electrochemical
cell that works as a solid state filter for oxygen. The electrolyte used
in the OGS will transfer only oxygen ions across its crystal structure.
-
- The unit weighs about two pounds and
will consume less than 15 watts of electrical power to produce more than
one cubic centimeter of oxygen per minute. This is twice the amount NASA
specified in its contractual requirements for the oxygen generator.
-
- "The challenges were to miniaturize
the technology and to make the process very energy efficient, while producing
a device that is rugged enough to withstand launch loads up to 35 Gs (35
times the force of gravity at sea level)," Sridhar says.
-
- The space-qualified OGS is being built
entirely in the UA AME Space Technologies Laboratory, where Program Manager
Matthias Gottmann is supervising a team made up of staff engineers, graduate
students, undergraduates, postdocs, and exchange students.
-
- OGS construction includes producing ceramic
heating elements from scratch that heat up faster and go to higher temperatures
than commercially available elements now do.
-
- Producing resources in situ has many
advantages, Sridhar explains. "By using extraterrestrial resources,
you lower the launch mass from Earth and thereby reduce the cost. You also
reduce the overall risk of a mission because you can produce safety caches
of valuable consumables that will be available to humans at the destination."
-
- But, he adds, perhaps the most significant
aspect of in situ resource utilization is that it is the enabling technology
that will make possible permanent settlements on other planets and their
satellites.
-
- Photos of the Oxygen Generating Subsystem
can be viewed online at <http://ares.ame.arizona.edu/~oxygen/pressthis website.
-
-
- [Contact: <mailto:sridhar@shakti.ame.arizona.eduK.R.
Sridhar]
|
