About this Research Topic

Background

Sustainable exploration of the solar system requires a large amount of material and propellant to be transported out of Earth’s gravity well and onwards to their destination. Despite recent advances in lowering launch costs, transferring material from Earth to space is still very costly. It still amounts to several thousand to tens of thousands of Euros per kilogram to low-earth orbit and transportation to the Moon and Mars even a multiple of that.
There is an abundance of resources in our solar system that can be utilized to reduce the material required to be launched from Earth significantly. Among these resources are water ice, hydrates, metals, regolith, rare earth elements, chemical compounds, volatiles, and rare isotopes. Utilizing these space resources would enable, e.g., consumable and propellant production, in-space manufacturing, or the construction of large structures, which would otherwise be very expensive or not possible at all with material launched from Earth.
Lunar regolith, for example, contains iron and titanium that could be used to produce spacecraft components or structural elements for a lunar base, while oxygen released from oxide minerals could be used for respiration or as a propellant. In addition, water ice could be extracted from regolith and used for consumption or agricultural applications. Although there have been numerous missions to the Moon, there are still a lot of unknowns concerning its surface, making it difficult to know where to look for resources and how to extract them.

This Research Topic shall address the numerous challenges related to space resource prospecting, extraction, and utilization. It aims to showcase the latest advancements in ISRU technology developments and highlight open challenges and technology gaps.

We encourage submissions focused on the following subjects and related matters:
· Technologies and instruments for the detection, characterization, and mapping of space resources
· Mobility and locomotion platforms to scout and potentially harvest resources
· Regolith excavation, handling, beneficiation, and transportation
· Technologies for the extraction and processing of space resources
· In-situ construction and manufacturing
· Dust mitigation techniques
· Cryo- and high-temperature technologies

** Abstract submission is welcome but not mandatory.

Keywords: ISRU, metals, beneficiation, Moon, Mars, resources, regolith, water, oxygen, simulants, excavation, prospecting, robotic platforms

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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