(soft electronic music) - [Astronaut] Where's
the direction- - [Narrator] As a new frontier
opens in the space market,
(rocket whooshing)
(exciting music)
some companies are trying to explore the possibilities
of harvesting resources from the moon and other objects.
Orbiting the earth is a potential trillion dollar payload
of precious minerals and fuel sources, companies say,
that could be used to power everyday
electronic devices and cars.
- The moon is
really created from the same materials
that earth is created from.
- It's about exploration, to gather those minerals,
and bring it back to earth in a economically-viable way.
- [Narrator] But as (soft electronic music)
investment in space startups
reaches a record high, some scientists
are skeptical that lunar mining could become a reality,
questioning the high cost
of space travel, (astronaut speaking distantly)
and the potential to destroy valuable geological sites.
One company exploring the possibilities
of extracting the moon's resources is Astrobotic.
The startup is working with NASA to develop lunar lander
and rover projects, (airy music)
which Astrobotic says
could help unlock the moon's potential in the future.
But those efforts (soft electronic music)
face mounting challenges in the coming years.
(room humming) - Here we go.
- [Narrator] This is the business of space.
A series focusing on
the innovative startups (soft electronic music)
capitalizing on the commercial space industry.
Pittsburgh was nicknamed "The Steel City" after its
famed manufacturing industry. (atmosphere humming)
But now, technicians at Astrobotic want it to be reclaimed
as a space hub.
(soft mysterious music)
And that all starts with Peregrine, the lander set to travel
to the moon later this year.
- This is the actual flight article,
and we're actually still completing
the propulsion systems integration
from the flight article.
- [Narrator] It's part of NASA's commercial lunar
payload program. (airy music)
- That program is designed to contract
with companies like ours to, again, deliver those payloads
to the surface of the moon on robotic vehicles.
- [Narrator] It could become
the first American spacecraft (soft electronic music)
to land on the moon since the last Apollo mission
more than 50 years ago.
- [Astronaut] It's one small step for man,
(spacecraft humming)
one giant leap for mankind.
- [Narrator] Peregrine will deliver technologies
to be tested on the moon.
If successful, they may be used in NASA's Artemis mission.
That's the space agency's plan to return humans to the moon,
with a view of potential inhabitation and construction
on the lunar surface, including the building
of a space camp.
- Where we're at today is that, we eventually wanna build
the infrastructure and capabilities to stay on the moon.
And things like building habitats are dependent on
finding where the resources are in the moon.
- [Narrator] But some (soft electronic music)
scientists say that establishing
permanent bases would involve destroying
large quantities of the lunar soil,
which is called regolith, to make way for buildings.
And that process could destroy clues as to how the moon,
and by extension, the earth, formed.
- So, just moving
all these terrain can eliminate that record of the impacts
on the lunar surface that we have.
But also, the upper part of the
lunar soil is like a record of what happened in the previous
millions years from this, and the sun.
- [Narrator] Companies such as Astrobotic,
and government agencies like NASA, are interested
in extracting from the regolith
to try and understand (soft music)
the composition of its resources.
Their aim is to facilitate continued exploration
and economic development in space.
Scientists have previously discovered a variety
of minerals and elements on the moon
that could be used to support that goal.
- We can find their oxygen in high quantities
that will be very helpful for life support system,
or for propellant and fuel.
We also can find water ice in the lunar poles,
that also it's very useful for survival of humans.
We can find other minerals and other elements
like silicone, metals,
rare earth elements
that we can use to fabricate things
that we need to use there on the lunar surface.
- [Narrator] But some engineers
are skeptical of the possibilities of extracting
usable material in
a space environment. (soft electronic music)
As many technologies are still in development.
A lunar mining operation would have to make use
of an unprecedented amount of innovative tools,
with automated or remote control machinery,
and pumps that require a minimal human oversight.
And there are financial limitations to harvesting
those resources for use on earth.
The cost of fueling trips to and from the lunar surface
is not currently economically viable,
some researchers say.
Payloads traveling (soft electronic music)
in the Peregrine lander
can be bought by private companies, investors,
or government agencies such as NASA.
The U.S. space agency has commissioned Astrobotic
to work on a series of rovers as payloads, small robots
that will travel across the surface of the moon,
and conduct scientific experiments.
One of those being developed here is the cube rover.
- Cube rovers can be used for lotsa different missions
and applications. (cube rover humming)
One of the ones that we're really excited about here,
is that we have rovers that can drive several kilometers,
survive lunar nights, using small platforms that are
orders of magnitude cheaper than prior rovers
in the past, allows us to scan the surface
of the moon in a much more affordable and less complex way,
so that we can (cube rover humming)
understand where the resources are located.
There's an interesting phenomenon that happens
with smaller rovers that we're learning more about
compared to larger rovers, and that the smaller rovers
actually float on top of the surface.
So, your wheel designs for these smaller rovers
are likely going to be very different
than some of the larger rovers.
- [Narrator] But there are lots of challenges
associated with engineering robotics
to work on the lunar surface.
- The lunar surface have really extreme temperatures,
and really high variation of temperatures.
So that is a challenge for the subsystems
of the rovers and the robotics elements,
but also the terrain.
It has a huge amount of dust that is really abrasive
and corrosive, and it can damage the subsystems.
Also radiation, the radiation can play an impact on the,
especially in the electronics of the system.
- [Narrator] As many (soft electronic music)
startups race to capitalize on the moon,
engineers and scientists say there are
limitations and consequences.
One of them is the potential damage to the environment.
- There are drawbacks to going to the moon permanently.
Some examples include leaving our assets behind
on the surface, or disrupting maybe the far side
of the moon, which is totally undisturbed right now.
It's looked at as one of the locations
in our solar system where you could look deep into space,
and have no interruptions, no noise, background noise
that can influence your observations.
- [Narrator] But given the environmental costs
of mining the earth, some say that the moon's resources
could help reduce damage at home.
Companies such as Astrobotic say those potential benefits
outweigh the risk of disrupting
the moon's natural ecosystem.
- I think that the ability to harvest resources and use them
to protect our own planet is incredibly helpful.
- [Narrator] Other scientists
are more skeptical (soft electronic music)
that the moon could, in turn, help protect the earth.
But one point they can agree on, is that establishing bases
on the moon for human visitation could be decades away.
And harvesting resources could take even longer.
For now, looking for clues in the regolith
is the first step.