The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Jet Propulsion Lab rovers will conduct autonomous experiments to test viability of mostly independent robotic work in space. After years of research and development, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that its CADRE mini-rovers will soon arrive on the Moon aboard a lunar lander to test the viability of cooperative robotics in future exploration of celestial bodies. Developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, the Cooperat... Full story
Showcasing the incredible learning environment of the developing protoplex at Missouri University of Science and Technology, a multidisciplinary team of students from the school was selected as one of seven finalists in NASA's 2023 BIG Idea Challenge, and their efforts have opened the doors for many seeking to contribute toward future habitation among the stars. In the fall of 2022, NASA announced its eighth annual Breakthrough, Innovation, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea...
Under the lead of a doctoral aerospace engineering student at Missouri University of Science and Technology, a team of 12 undergraduates have come together to continue research on a project that is out of this world. In the fall of 2022, NASA announced its eighth annual Breakthrough, Innovation, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. You can read about the initial announcement of NASA's challenge at Latest NASA challenge tackles Moon forging in the August 17, 2022 edition of... Full story
Arguments against the expense and impracticality of space exploration have been ongoing since before the Apollo missions ever got off the ground. In fact, NASA's budget has hovered between a minute 1% and 0.4% of the total federal budget since the 1970s. Missions fail, lose funding, or fall out of favor between presidencies. But there is one assurance that private investors can take to the bank-innovation in the face of space exploration always pays. "You have to innovate, an... Full story
London-based Asteroid Mining Corp. has developed the Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer (SCAR-E) as a ruggedly built, adaptable, and low-cost walking and climbing robot available initially for commercial use across a range of destinations on Earth ahead of its primary task of exploring the solar system. The company developed the SCAR-E six-legged robot to outperform Spot, Boston Dynamic's robot dog. "We are coming for you Boston Dynamics," proclaimed Asteroid Mining CEO... Full story
At T-minus 25 days until the launch of the Psyche, the technicians behind this first mission to a metal-rich asteroid beyond the orbit of Mars can barely contain their excitement. "It's getting increasingly real," said Henry Stone, Psyche's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We are counting the days. The team is more than ready to send this spacecraft off on its journey, and it's very exciting." No stranger to playing the long game,... Full story
NASA has selected the geology team for the Artemis III moon flight, the first crewed lunar landing mission since the Apollo missions over 50 years ago. The astrogeology team will help plan geological investigations for the Artemis crew, which includes the first woman, first man of color, and first Canadian on a moon mission. Led by Brett Denevi of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Maryland, the Artemis III geology team is working with NASA to determine the...
Martian geologist takes a page from Earth prospectors; collects sample of a conglomerate of rocks that washed down a Mars river. When a geologist must ship rock samples 217 million miles for analysis, only the best specimens will do. This is why Perseverance, and the team of earthbound scientists supporting the Mars rover, were thrilled with the latest sample collected by the six-wheeled robo-geologist. On Sol 832 – the 832nd Martian day of the Perseverance mission, or June 23...
Like flying cars and jet packs, space travel, colonization and resource mining are all lagging behind the imaginations of Hollywood, scientists, and billionaire CEOs. This is partly because NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (and any other nation's government-supported agencies) have a problem – the project ambitions of the U.S. Congress-funded space agency is hedged by the variable length of a presidential term and the resulting appointments. Therefore, it is up to the p... Full story
Epiroc, a leading Swedish equipment and tech innovator for the mining and infrastructure industries, has partnered up with Japanese automation and AI startup iSpace and its Luxembourg-based subsidiary iSpace EU in a long-term collaboration agreement for developing commercial Moon missions. International space agencies' attentions have been focused on the principal chemical elements of the lunar surface that would provide for self-sustaining lunar habitation and the mining of...
Foreseeing the importance of a presence in space, the Minister for Industry and Science, Australian parliament member Ed Husic, along with dignitaries from the Australian Space Agency and NASA, announced the EPE and Lunar Outpost Oceania consortium as one of two successful groups to receive stage-one funding under Australia's Moon to Mars Trailblazer Initiative. The Trailblazer program was launched in late 2021 as part of the Moon to Mars Initiative, which seeks to progress... Full story
Psyche mission to $10 quintillion metal asteroid is slated for 2023. NASA and the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are psyched about a recent decision to put their planned mission to a metal-rich asteroid beyond Mars back on the docket. The space agency had originally planned to send a probe to 16 Psyche, a roughly 140-mile-wide asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, earlier this year. This mission, named after the destination asteroid, however, had to be scrubbed... Full story
Colorado School of Mines, Lunar Outpost work on NASA project The Center for Space Resources at Colorado School of Mines and Lunar Outpost has been selected to carry out the Autonomous Site Preparation: Excavation, Compaction and Testing (ASPECT) project; part of NASA's larger Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) program that is preparing for the eventuality that Man will be living, working, and traveling frequently to and from the Moon. As one of only three...
Following a competition launched by the European Space Agency, it has selected Thales Alenia Space to design and build the first experimental payload to mine oxygen from the surface of the Moon. Tasked with producing a small piece of equipment that will evaluate the prospect of building larger lunar plants to extract propellant for spacecraft and breathable air for astronauts – as well as metallic raw materials for equipment – the Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer, was...
Missouri University of Science and Technology has been selected as part of a NASA project to develop lunar infrastructure technologies, with researchers from the school developing mineral extraction techniques that may one day make it possible for people to live and work on the Moon. Announced in February, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration selected three U.S. universities as part of its LuSTR Space Technology Research Grants program. In the hopes to supplement...
A research team at the University of Arizona recently received $500,000 in NASA funding for a project to advance space mining methods through the use of autonomous robots, swarms of them. "It's really exciting to be at the forefront of a new field," said interim head of the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, as well as the David & Edith Lowell Chair in Mining and Geological Engineering Moe Momayez. "I remember watching TV shows as a kid, like 'Space: 1999,'...
As NASA prepares for Artemis, which will establish an outpost on the Moon in preparation to send humans to Mars, at least some of the next generation of astronauts will need to have a discerning eye for lunar geology. The European Space Agency's Pangaea training campaign is equipping some of the top candidates for future lunar missions with a basic course in Moon geology. Pangaea, designed to provide astronauts with the fundamental knowledge and practical skills to be...
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Aug. 18 announced the winners of its Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, which is incentivizing new approaches for excavating resources on the Moon and beyond. As NASA prepares to go to the Moon with the Artemis program, in-situ resource utilization is of paramount importance, as current methods of rocketing Earth resources into space are too costly. As one of the barest of commodities for human survival, water is the goal for 13...
Many Earthbound mineral exploration geologists can relate to the disappointment that must have been felt by NASA scientists when they realized that the Perseverance rover did not recover a sample from the first hole drilled by the Martian explorer. "When core drilling that is as highly anticipated as the Perseverance drilling recovers nothing, the deflation and disappointment felt by both driller and geologist is palpable," said Curt Freeman, a geologist with more than four...
A year after embarking on its 292.5-million-mile journey to Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is readying to collect its first Martian rock sample. Since its February arrival, the robotic geologist and its helicopter sidekick Ingenuity have been exploring the deepest and most ancient layers of exposed bedrock across a 1.5-square-mile patch of the 28-mile-wide Jezero Crater, which was a large lake when Mars was still a water planet. After carrying out this reconnaissance, Perseve...
Colorado-based aviation and aerospace company, Lunar Outpost, famed for its $1 sale of moon rocks to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is now participating in NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge by harvesting space ice on the surface of the Moon. As part of a joint entry with Masten Space Systems and Honeybee Robotics, Lunar Outpost has designed "a system architecture to excavate icy regolith and deliver acquired resources in extreme lunar conditions." The... Full story
The long-term exploration and colonization of Mars will not be able to rely on the expense of rocketing goods beyond the gravitational pull of Earth and then another 171 million miles to the Red Planet. Instead, the mining of ice and other minerals for fuel, water and building materials from local resources will need to be carried out by Martian robots and humans. So, it is no wonder that NASA's first three Mars rovers are basically robotic geologists exploring the Martian... Full story
With NASA and the private sector taking a serious look at mining lunar and Martian soil in support of human outposts, Colorado School of Mines has unveiled two new undergraduate minors to support these space-faring endeavors. Currently the only academic institution in the Unites States to offer an advanced degree in space resources, the Colorado School of Mines is adding a space mining minor this fall that will allow undergraduate students to get a flavor of the future of... Full story
Natural "minimoons" that temporarily orbit Earth may be interesting targets for both scientific study and to practice asteroid mining techniques. While Earth is orbited by thousands of artificial satellites and one large natural one, the Moon, it has only been recently that scientists have confirmed that small natural objects are also circling our planet. About eight years ago, researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy predicted that there must be a...
Drifting some 250 miles above the Earth, researchers aboard the International Space Station have enlisted the help from some of the smallest miners in the universe, microbes. These off-world experiments tested the possibility of using these tiny organisms to convert unsuitable space rock and regolith into soil for growing plants and food, as well as extracting valuable minerals and metals from extraterrestrial materials. Published in Nature Communications, the findings by a...
