this video is sponsored by brilliant hey hey marcus house with you here today i have another
special midweek video for you to enjoy we'll be diving deep into how in situ resource utilization
plays a vital role as humankind ventures out from our home world why is it so
critical for spacex's plans to have humans settle permanently on mars let's find out
in situ resource utilization or isru is the process of collecting and processing materials
found on other astronomical objects like the moon and mars and then turning them into something
useful like water rocket fuel or concrete these materials can be found in all sorts of places in
one form or another they can be ice in the polar ice caps on mars the regolith in the surface of
the moon or the gases in the martian atmosphere we will round back to the martian resource production
in a little bit by looking into how spacex plans to prepare for long duration missions to mars
with all of the resources available in the solar system and a little bit of chemistry
you can make just about anything you need to to survive on another world taking a look at our
closest neighbor in the solar system the moon we can begin to explore the potential that isru
has for lunar exploration and colonization one of the most critical resources for humans to live
anywhere is a sustainable source of water on earth of course this is really a problem but on the moon
it's a different story with temperatures ranging from positive 125 degrees celsius to negative
125 degrees celsius finding liquid water on the moon is thought to be impossible this doesn't
mean that isn't water though numerous studies observations and lunar probes have confirmed the
presence of water in various locations in a number of forms scientists and space planners have long
acknowledged that extended human residence on the moon would be greatly aided by the use of
local resources but what resources are there that we can harness to improve human settlement first
of all lunar soil could be used for shielding habitats against the radiation environment also
most lunar rocks are about 40 oxygen and chemical and electrochemical methods for extracting it have
been demonstrated in laboratories the solar wind has implanted hydrogen helium and other elements
in the surface of fine grains of lunar soil that may someday serve as a resource even if just a
minimal quantity of it they are easily released by moderate heating but large volumes of soil
would need to be processed to obtain useful amounts of the desired materials another
interesting resource is helium-3 this is an isotope of helium that is rare here on earth which
has been deposited on the moon by the solar wind helium-3 in combination with deuterium has been
proposed as a fuel for nuclear fusion reactors in the future for the moon having an abundant source
of energy that can survive the lunar nights that last 354 hours would be a wonderful thing
yes fusion technology is still a long way off but investment into space technology and the systems
that can help sustain space exploration always ends up benefiting the entire world with many
billions of dollars invested into space tech power systems i think will begin to play a core part
into that funding soon could that speed up the development of fusion power systems that i can't
say but with new business opportunities comes new focus and dedication with the
richest people on the planet dreaming to expand life off-world the future looks very positive
so diving into some interesting discoveries that have already been made regarding the presence of
valuable resources on the lunar surface the lunar reconnaissance orbiter has returned an abundance
of data including the highest quality images of the lunar surface to date the data also indicates
the presence of water ice buried underneath the lunar regolith at certain locations the lunar
crater observation and sensing satellite mission launched along with the lunar orbiter was directed
to impact the lunar surface observations of the resulting 10 mile high plume showed that nearly
five percent of the regolith was composed of water and another five percent contained additional
volatiles including methane ammonia hydrogen carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide these resources
if abundant in enough quantities can provide useful amounts of chemical components needed
for fuels fertilizers refrigerants purification systems and much more if we can obtain useful
amounts that is something we don't need to bring along so what else is there to discover
well here are some current plans that nasa and other space agencies have lined up over the coming
years nasa's lunar surface innovation initiative will develop and demonstrate technologies to use
the moon's resources to produce water fuel and other supplies as well as capabilities to excavate
and construct structures on the moon the volatiles investigation polar exploration rover or viper
is a mobile robot that will go to the lunar south pole in 2023 to get a close-up view of
the locations and concentration of water ice that could eventually be harvested to sustain human
exploration on the moon mars and beyond viper represents the first resource mapping mission
on another celestial body nasa and other space agencies are conducting international coordination
of lunar polar volatiles exploration to increase scientific knowledge to determine their viability
as potential resources and of course to use the moon as a proving ground for mars in situ resource
utilization technologies nasa is taking research in this area very seriously and we've recently
seen with the new break the ice lunar challenge that's designed to develop new technologies
that can support a sustained human presence on the moon by the end of the decade this is extremely
exciting i think because it's providing incentives to industries small businesses and students
to come up with some great concepts to address many of the challenges that we all need to solve
as a stepping stone to technology that can be used on mars i can't think of a better way to begin our
evolution to truly becoming a multi-planet species to live and work in deep space for
months or years may mean crew members have less immediate access to life-sustaining elements
and critical supplies readily available here on earth however the farther humans go into
deep space especially mars the more important it will be to generate products with local materials
resupply missions are expensive and the astronaut crews become more independent on earth to sustain
their exploration as it becomes more viable for travel in space we need practical and affordable
ways to use resources along the way rather than needing to carry everything we think we will need
well into the future similar to moon based infrastructure future martian astronauts
will require the ability to collect as many mars based resources as possible and then transform
them into breathable air water for drinking hygiene products fertilizer products rocket
propellants building materials and much more the future mission objectives and capabilities
will be multiplied when useful products can be created from extraterrestrial resources some of
the most promising space-based commodities that could enable substantial reductions in the mass
cost and risk of human space exploration include oxygen water and methane and this is also one of
the main reasons why spacex's starship rocket is powered by oxygen and methane these two starship
specific propellants can be viably produced on mars through the sabatia process this process
utilizes electrolysis which splits water molecules into their two core atoms oxygen which can be
super chilled into the oxidizer for the starship vehicle and hydrogen which would be used for the
next step of the sabatia process now with that excess hydrogen from electrolysis you can combine
it with carbon dioxide from the martian atmosphere under high temperatures of 200 to 360 degrees
celsius and with over 30 atmospheres of pressure to produce methane fuel the sabatia reaction is
compact for long term martian crude missions this is spacex's approach but nasa plans otherwise
through their moxie experiment or mars oxygen in situ resource utilization experiment which
will prepare for future exploration launching on the perseverance rover earlier this year
moxie will demonstrate how future mars explorers might produce oxygen from the martian atmosphere
for propellant and breathing so all in all in situ resource utilization is a vital process
in enabling human presence on the moon mars and beyond the process takes raw materials
found on an astronomical body and turns them into something useful various resources are abundant on
many bodies in our solar system and with a little bit of chemistry you can make just about anything
you need to survive on another world requiring us to only bring along what is missing now i'd
love to know your opinions on what we should talk about next along with our weekly news updates on
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