Space Resource Generation

Roadmap Creators: | Lanie McKinney

Technology Roadmap Sections and Deliverables

This technology roadmap has the unique identifier:

1SRG - Space Resource Generation

The number 1 denotes that this is a Level 1 technology roadmap at the market level. In reference to our technology, Level 1 encompasses all conversion technologies used in space, Level 2 describes the product level, for example oxygen generation. Level 3, the system level, could reference a solid oxide electrolysis system for oxygen production and Level 4, the subsystem level could represent the material used for the electrode stack.

Roadmap Overview

Space Resource Generation refers to the thermal or chemical conversion processes to generate resources in space environments which relax launch requirements, and subsequently enable a range of exploration and commercial activities in space. NASA's Artemis program plans to head back to the Moon this decade in a phased approach to build up lunar activity, including a commercial presence, to serve as a proving ground for human missions to Mars. The space industry is set to be valued at ~1.8 trillion USD by 2035, with increasing access to space enabled through the reduction of launch costs. The need for space resource generation technologies is driven by increasingly longer stays off-world at destinations of increasing distance from Earth, where technologies that recycle utilize available resources can make these missions safer, more Earth-independent, and even enable cost-savings.

Space resource technologies can be used for life-support among numerous human space stations, propellant generation, metal extraction and production, radiation shielding, landing pad production, etc. Space resource generation includes both “in-situ resource utilization” (ISRU) and resource recycling technologies, because these two categories of technologies share similar operating principles and should be compared using the same Figures of Merit (FOMs) to elucidate the different value in different mission profiles.

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Design Structure Matrix (DSM) Allocation

The market level DSM for Space Resource Generation demonstrates that there is a high level of interdependency between different chemical conversion processes and their target/waste products, highlighted in Green for level 2. For example, oxygen generation can be used for both life-support and rocket propellant, and can be obtained from regolith, water, atmospheric constituents (Mars, space habitats), and as a byproduct of the recycling products and metal extraction. At the system level of oxygen generation, the focus of FOM modeling below, key enabling technologies are the acquisition system (3AS), conversion technology (3CT), separation system (3SS), control system (3CS), and thermal management system (3THM). At level 4, the enabling technologies include 4EM electrodes, 4ADM adsorbent materials, 4PRV pressurized reactor vessels, 4BR bioreactors, 4ECC electrochemical cells, 4PPS plasma sources, 4HF filters, 4SM Separation Membranes, 4CCM catalysts and catalyst management, 4HX heat exchangers, and 4C compressors. Different combinations of level 4 elements may lead to novel performance.

Roadmap Model using OPM

We provide an Object-Process-Diagram (OPD) of the 1SRG roadmap in the figure below. This diagram captures the main product of the roadmap (Space Resource Generation Systems), and decomposes the various possible common subsystems of these technologies (acquisition, heating, compression, conversion, separation stages …), its characterization by Figures of Merit (FOMs) as well as the main processes (Acquiring, Converting).

An Object-Process-Language (OPL) description of the roadmap scope is auto-generated and given below. It reflects the same content as the previous figure, but in a formal natural language.

Figures of Merit

The table below show a list of FOMs that can be used to assess Space Resource Generation Technologies.

Figure of Merit	Unit	Description
Production Rate	kg/hr	the rate of generating a target product
Lifetime Embodied Energy	MJ/kg	the thermodynamic sum of past, present and future work required to create, operate, maintain and decommission a system per kg of product produced
Specific Energy Consumption	kWh/kg	total energy required to produce a kg of product
Launch-adjusted Atom Economy	%	ratio of mass of useful product generated to the total mass of reactants and launched mass needed

Besides defining what the FOMs are, this section of the roadmap should also contain the FOM trends over time dFOM/dt as well as some of the key governing equations that underpin the technology. These governing equations can be derived from physics (or chemistry, biology ..) or they can be empirically derived from a multivariate regression model. The table below shows an example of a key governing equation governing (solar-) electric aircraft.