- [Narrator] Traffic to the moon
is going to pick up this year.
- We think it'll be very exciting
to have a base on the moon.
- [Narrator] Space transportation companies
from SpaceX to Blue Origin are teaming up with NASA.
- The moon also needs infrastructure.
Lemme show you something.
(dramatic music)
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] And they have their sights
on a valuable resource.
- Hundreds of millions of tons of water ice
at the poles of the moon.
- [Narrator] Some geological analytics say
the market for space water
will be worth $206 billion over the next 30 years.
- Water is the oil of space.
- [Narrator] This would allow rockets
to move deeper into the cosmos
and eventually go to Mars.
So how do NASA and its partner companies plan to do this?
- [Announcer] Three, two.
- [Narrator] First, you've got to understand
that it takes a lot of fuel to go to space.
- [George] The moon rockets in the 1960s
were mostly just giant fuel tanks
because all the fuel it ever needs has
to be brought from the Earth.
- [Narrator] George Sowers is a professor of space resources
at Colorado School of Mines
and he's been enlisted by NASA
to research water ice mining technology.
- The importance of having sources of fuel beyond Earth
is due to what we call the tyranny of the rocket equation.
What the rocket equation shows
is that as you increase the amount
of velocity that you want,
the amount of propellant that you need
to deliver that increases exponentially.
- [Narrator] It turns out,
the fuel itself isn't expensive.
- The cost of propellant is actually only about .3%
of the cost of the rocket or of emission.
So if emission costs $60 million,
the cost of propellant is only $200,000.
- [Narrator] What is expensive is the weight of the fuel
because you need a lot of it
to break through Earth's gravitational grip into space.
- Moving mass from Earth into space
is really, really hard to do.
It requires big rockets
and harnessing power is very expensive.
- [Narrator] So one way
to reduce the weight launch from Earth,
build a refueling station in space.
According to Sower's projection,
refueling in space cuts the cost
of every mission by at least 10 to 20%.
Also, if you can refuel in space at least once,
the rocket can travel farther and at greater velocity.
This concept is already an important part
of SpaceX's Starship design.
- It can get tankered to fill up its propellant tanks
and so it can depart from lowest orbit
with 1,200 tons of propellant.
Your delta velocity is enough to transport 350 tons
to the surface of the moon or Mars.
In practicing docking with the Space Station,
the SpaceX has also learnt how to rendezvous
and dock in orbit in a complex environment.
- [Narrator] Because of SpaceX's experience,
NASA has chosen it to help develop orbital refueling.
But to make refueling sustainable,
the Space Agency is looking for alternatives
to transporting fuel from Earth.
- In space resources, we have to use them.
- [Narrator] Enter space water.
- [Jeff] We were given a gift,
this nearby body called the moon.
There's water there.
It's in the form of ice.
- [Narrator] Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin team
has a nearly $580 million contract from NASA
to design and develop a lunar lander called the Blue Moon,
which will deliver crew and cargo.
This lander will be powered by liquid hydrogen,
today's most common rocket fuel.
- Ultimately, we're gonna be able to get hydrogen
from that water on the moon
and be able to refuel these vehicles
on the surface of the moon and use them.
- [Narrator] By running an electric current
through the water,
it can be split into hydrogen and oxygen.
When the two gases are combined, then ignited,
they explode, generating energy,
which then becomes propellant.
To exploit water on the moon,
NASA has created a five-year plan
with international and commercial partners
to set up mining operations.
- If it can be harvested and utilized,
it's a game-changer.
It's a paradigm shift.
- [Narrator] Thomas Zurbuchen is the head
of science at NASA.
He oversees the moon and Mars research programs.
- [Thomas] Water is an integral part of all missions,
just for sustaining life
and also for fuel.
- [Narrator] So starting this year,
two commercial landers will arrive on the moon,
delivering spectrometers to map the location
of water in craters and measure its concentration.
- Next year, we're flying the first attempt
at a mining drill to the surface of the moon.
It's called PRIME-1.
We're gonna either modify that we learnt something
or can work as a copy.
We're also gonna fly on Viper.
- [Narrator] Viper is a rover built
to explore the darker regions of the South Pole.
It will search for water ice and start drilling for samples.
By 2024, NASA expects its first lunar outpost
called the Gateway will be under construction.
This will serve as a port for landers
en route to the lunar surface
and spacecraft headed to Mars and beyond.
So if things go as planned,
by 2025, NASA can contract robotics companies
to start mining
and three years later, begin water production on the moon.
- That surface ice is gonna be the lowest cost
and the easiest to get.
We can get at it by just heating it up
and sublimating it into vapor
and capturing that vapor.
(dramatic music)
- As we go forward,
there may be a time where such a fuel depot
is absolutely critical for what we can do.
Like if we wanna go down to the moon multiple times
from the Gateway or from other locations,
kind of being able to pick up fuel
is an enabling part.
- [Narrator] Meanwhile, there are other experiments
to create propellant in space.
NASA's Perseverance rover
that landed on Mars in February
is testing a system to extract oxygen
from the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere
to eventually make propellant.
And a recent study by Purdue University confirms
the presence of widespread ice beneath the surface
of Mars Arcadia Planitia's region,
potentially a source for making fuel
and supporting life.
While most scientists say a manned mission to Mars
is still a decade away,
for now, practicing how to use space resources
will be one of many key steps
for humans to eventually set foot on another planet.
(pensive music)