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Is ISRU refueling really ready for this? (Methane I assume, as hydrogen sounds much harder.) To me, getting that set of technologies to an operational level is
by mLuby 7y ago
Is ISRU refueling really ready for this? (Methane I assume, as hydrogen sounds much harder.)
To me, getting that set of technologies to an operational level is one of the biggest reasons to go (back) to the Moon. It's cheaper to send demonstrators there, and easier to troubleshoot them.
Once we can do ISRU refueling reliably, the solar system will become dramatically more accessible (to robots, and eventually humans).
- Robotbeat 7y agoYes, because we are sending an ISRU demo on the Mars 2020 rover which will convert the CO2 atmosphere into oxygen and carbon monoxide (which could be used as a fuel). You'd have to use a completely different type of ISRU for the Moon, and mining for it on the Moon (i.e. scraping a permanently shadowed crater near a lunar pole) is a lot harder than on Mars where you can just suck in some of the atmosphere. There's not nearly as much commonality as you might think.
- wtracy 7y agoI didn't know about the ISRU test on Mars 2020, that's very exciting!
- LeifCarrotson 7y agoI thought the typical Martian ISRU called for heating soil to extract water vapor and using the hydrogen in that to make fuel. Oxygen is still interesting, for sure, but that robotic mining sounds a lot more difficult.
- Robotbeat 7y agoThe carbon monoxide can also be used as rocket fuel. Not commonly considered, but it'd simplify a lot of things.
- wtracy 7y agoZubrin's plan is specific to Mars in that it relies on chemicals present in the Martian atmosphere. The only equivalent option I know of for the moon would be to collect water ice and break it down to oxygen and hydrogen. The process involved would be quite different.