NASAs 2023 yearly Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge asks university student to develop innovations that will support a metal production pipeline on the Moon– from extracting metal from lunar minerals to creating structures and tools. Credit: NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab
Seven university groups were selected to establish principles supporting metal production on the Moon in NASAs 2023 annual Breakthrough, Game-Changing and ingenious (BIG) Idea Challenge: Lunar Forge.
The awards total about $1.1 million, with worths between $120,000 and $180,000 based on each groups proposed principle. The obstacle is an unique cooperation between NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorates (STMD) Game Changing Development (GCD) program and NASAs Office of STEM Engagement Space Grant Project.
The 2023 BIG Idea Challenge awardees are:
Colorado School of MinesLunar Alloy Metal Production Plant (LAMPP) Advisors: Dr. Christopher Dreyer, Dr. George Sowers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Honeybee RoboticsArtemis Steelworks: Advancing Reactor Technologies for Electrolytic Manufacturing of In-Situ SteelAdvisors: Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman, Dr. Antoine Allanore, Dr. Olivier De Weck, Dr. Martin Culpepper, George Lordos
Missouri University of Science and TechnologyLunar In-Situ Aluminum Production Through Molten Salt Electrolysis (LISAP-MSE) Advisors: Dr. Daoru Han, Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Dr. Fateme Rezaei, Dr. David Bayless, Dr. William Schonberg, Dr. Daniel Stutts
Northwestern University with Wearifi, Inc.ACRE: Autonomous Casting RovErAdvisor: Dr. Ian McCue
Pennsylvania State University with RFHIC and Jacobs Space Exploration GroupDevelopment of the Smelting with Microwave Energy for Lunar Technologies (SMELT) System for In-Situ Resource ProcessingAdvisors: Dr. Sven Bilen, Dr. Aleksandra Radlinska
University of North Texas with Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes Institute, UNT; Enabled EngineeringSolid-state Integrated Manufacturing Process for Lunar Environment (SIMPLE) Advisors: Dr. Rajiv S. Mishra, Dr. Hector Siller, Dr. Ravi Sankar Haridas
University of Utah with Powder Metallurgy Research LaboratoryProduction of Steel from Lunar Regolith through Carbonyl Iron Refining (CIR) Advisors: Dr. Hong Y. Sohn, Dr. Michael F. Simpson, Dr. Michael L Free
In-situ resource utilization (ISRU)– or the capability to use naturally existing resources– is essential to a stable cadence of Artemis objectives and a continual human presence on the Moon and a lunar economy. Metals strength and resistance to rust make it key to building structures required for a lunar base, such as pipes, cables, landing pads, transportation rails, and pressure vessels to contain volatiles like fuel. Nevertheless, the metal materials for facilities are heavy, making them challenging and expensive to transport from Earth.
Producing metal items on the Moon is a substantial procedure that consists of:
Proposing groups submitted a large variety of principles for technologies required at any point in the lunar metal production pipeline.
” The BIG Idea Challenge expands chances for students and professors to immerse themselves in genuine NASA projects, in addition to assistances trainee pursuits in STEM,” stated NASAs Space Grant Project Manager Tomas Gonzalez-Torres. “Through taking part in the BIG Idea Challenge, these teams are making huge strides at the university level in addition to towards excellence in their future professions.”
When funded, teams continue designing, building, and checking their ideas in advance of a November 2023 online forum, where their work will be showcased to the general public and judged by a panel of NASA and industry specialists. The forum allows the university-led teams to user interface with ongoing lunar mission planning conversations that are underway within STMDs Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII). As soon as established, these projects are nurtured by universities, and could augment technology presently in advancement by NASA.
The BIG Idea Challenge is an initiative supporting GCDs efforts to quickly develop innovative and high-impact abilities and innovations for infusion in a broad variety of future NASA missions. The obstacle supplies graduate and undergraduate trainees and faculty the chance to design, establish, and show their innovation in an intensive project-based program throughout eighteen months, with NASA scientists and engineers reviewing the possibility of embracing developments initiated and furthered by the university teams.
The BIG Idea Challenge is among a number of Artemis student difficulties and is managed by the National Institute of Aerospace.
Metals strength and resistance to deterioration make it key to building structures required for a lunar base, such as pipelines, cables, landing pads, transport rails, and pressure vessels to contain volatiles like fuel. The metal products for infrastructure are heavy, making them challenging and costly to carry from Earth.
Once moneyed, groups continue creating, structure, and checking their concepts in advance of a November 2023 forum, where their work will be showcased to the public and evaluated by a panel of NASA and market specialists. The forum allows the university-led groups to interface with ongoing lunar objective planning conversations that are underway within STMDs Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII). As soon as established, these tasks are incubated by universities, and could augment technology currently in advancement by NASA.
Metal spotting, particularly for minerals such as anorthite and ilmenite
Material refining
Forming materials for additive manufacturing
Production of metal matrix composites
Checking and qualification of the ISRU-derived metal products