Product/Service
- Classification
- Space Resources
- Category
- Space Resources
Resources - Water
Space Architecture
Commercial Space Station
ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization)
Miscellaneous
- Status
- Concept
- First launch
- Not announced
LUWEX - Validation of Lunar Water Extraction and Purification Technologies for In-Situ Propellant and Consumables Production
Project Objectives:
- Development of water extraction, purification, and quality monitoring technologies for an in-situ raw water process chain.
- Designing and manufacturing an integrated validation test setup to provide a proper test environment as an essential preparatory activity for future space exploration.
- Validation of in-situ raw water technologies in an integrated test setup in a laboratory environment.
- Advancing the European excellence in space exploration by developing and validating leading edge in-situ resource utilization technologies.
- Improving the interdisciplinary collaboration and leveraging synergies of industry, academia and institutional research within Europe.
Fused Layer Deposition
- Fused Fiber Layer Deposition (FFLD) of Lunar regolith
- June 2023 – November 2024
- European Space Agency (ESA) project
- In future lunar explorations, In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is key, with Additive Manufacturing (AM) using lunar regolith as feedstock offering independence from Earth and enhancing sustainability. Methods such as lasers, microwaves, and concentrated sunlight have been suggested for regolith AM. Fused Layer Deposition (FLD) of Lunar regolith simulant, explored in a previous ESA Discovery Study involved building a 3D printer for layer-wise melt extrusion of molten regolith, producing glassy parts. While processes exist for fibers and extraterrestrial concrete blocks, there are no proposals for additively manufacturing fiber-reinforced composites from regolith feedstock to date. This innovative approach to lunar component manufacturing promises increased autonomy for Moon missions, reducing reliance on Earth’s resources.
- ESA project as part of the Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) – Off-Earth Manufacturing Campaign
- Consortium partners: University of Aalen – Germany / University of Aachen RWTH – Germany / LIQUIFER Systems Group – Austria
HARMONISE
- Recycling of hardware for Moon and Martian settlement
- September 2022 – February 2024
- ESA Express Procurement Plus – EXPRO+
- Nowadays, human Moon and Mars exploration, and the consequent desire to establish a permanent settlement on their surface, represents one of the most fascinating challenge to face. The permanent presence of a human outpost very far from Earth raises the problem of the huge amount of payload required for the settlement, as well as the need of rapid and in- time supply of material and spare parts useful for all the activities carried out in-situ. Understanding if and how the recycling of available in-situ resources (resource found at the destination and/or no longer useful hardware brought form Earth for mission purposes) is feasible for Moon and Mars settlement is one of the critical and more challenging further steps in future manned Space missions.
- Concerning the recycling of waste generated in crewed mission, Additive Layering Manufacturing (ALM) can offer a solution if the in-situ resources, after having undergone a proper recycled process, will be proved to be suitable for processing as feedstock material. On the other hand, a second crucial aspect for In-Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU) is the viability to partially or completely re-process or re-combine hardware and materials brought from Earth and that cannot any longer play their role for mission purpose, consequently turned them into hardware useful at the destination. Several and of the most diverse aspects of Moon and Mars settlements can benefit from this if, for instance, maintenance tools, utensils, medical patient-specific back-up implants, habitat elements and research instrumentation can be envisaged as outcomes of this recycling process.
- HARMONISE studies aspects of recycling of hardware for Moon and Martian settlement and develops small demonstrators to prove feasibility of the chosen concepts.
- Consortium partners: OHB Systems AG, Azimut Space GmbH , LIQUIFER Systems Group
A-Loop
- A-Loop commercial LEO space station post-ISS
- December 2021 – April 2023
- Airbus project for ESA RFI
- Concept study under a contract for Airbus in Answer to a Request for Information by ESA.
- VR-display for immersion into the design concept of A-Loop, presented at the Air & Space Conference 2023.
- Consortium partners: AIBUS Space & Defence – Germany / LIQUIFER – Austria / SPARTAN SPACE – France / Space Applications Services – Belgium
PAVING THE ROAD
- Paving the road for large area sintering of regolith
- June 2021 – December 2022
- European Space Agency (ESA) project
- A prerequisite for future human exploration of the Moon will be the manufacture of objects directly on the lunar surface, as transporting materials from Earth is extremely expensive. As for any form of manufacturing, the availability of three types of resources must be examined: Equipment, raw materials and energy sources. Equipment will certainly have to be brought from Earth at the outset. Raw materials and energy, on the other hand, may be available under the concept of in situ resource utilisation (ISRU). Lunar regolith is a fine powder that covers the lunar surface and is the simplest raw material suitable for building structures. Paving the Road plans to directly sinter the lunar regolith with a laser spot of up to 10 cm in size to produce good trafficable subsoil. This will create efficient transport routes that are less dusty than driving directly on the lunar sand.
- ESA project as part of the Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) – Off-Earth Manufacturing Campaign
- Consortium partners: TU Clausthal – Germany / BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialprüfung – Germany / University of Aalen – Germany / LIQUIFER Systems Group – Austria
TRAILER
- July 2019 – August 2021
- European Space Agency (ESA) project
- Trailer develops a novel architecture for the robotic cooperation between two rovers working in tandem in lunar surface exploration missions. The system is comprised of one agile and power-heavy rover TRACTOR, equipped with high-performance locomotion and navigation technology, a wireless transceiver, short-term energy storage, and sample acquisition system. WAIN, the second rover, actively trails TRACTOR and is equipped with limited locomotion and navigation capacity, high power generation and storage, and a wireless network that assures lunar-earth communication. WAIN also hosts a scientific laboratory for sample collection and analysis.
- Consortium partners COMEX – France / DFKI Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) – Germany / LIQUIFER Systems Group – Austria
SMARTIE
- Smart Resource Management based on Internet of Things to support off-Earth manufacturing of lunar infrastructures (SMARTIE)
- March 2021 – November 2021
- European Space Agency (ESA) project
- SMARTIE is an inclusive feasibility study analysing the requirements for future network infrastructures considering items such as data management and budget to exploit and optimize Moon Factories Management and available resources to assure high-grade self-sustainability.
- The SMARTIE concept connects the following critical technologies and processes to advance a sustainable exploration scenario:
- An Off-Earth manufacturing architecture based on a combination of 3D printing and the Internet of Things (IoT) could provide the smart and efficient management of available resources for long-term survival of both crew and technological assets in harsh space environments. Current industrial developments in intelligence and data processing can be applicable to off-Earth construction, with the potential to streamline manufacturing processes, and devise novel material solutions for printing off-Earth items, valuable to both autonomous building operations and mission crewmembers.
- Consortium partners LIQUIFER Systems Group – Austria / OHB SYSTEM AG – Germany / SPARTAN SPACE C/o Bc ESPACE ENTERPRISE – France / Azimut Space GmbH – Germany / Zühlke Engineering GmBH – Austria
Fused Fiber Layer Deposition (FFLD) of Lunar regolith
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