Category: Space Resources

Mines, Lunar Outpost team heading to finals in NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge 2/13/24

Mines, Lunar Outpost team heading to finals in NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow George Sowers contributes to this article about a team with members from Colorado School of Mines and Lunar Outpost, called the Ice Diggers, has been named a finalist in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge.  The Ice Diggers will be one of six teams facing off head-to-head this spring at a NASA-designed test facility to see which prototype lunar excavation rover performs best. February 13, 2024.

Mines faculty, students work on technology that could “change space travel forever”

Mines faculty, students work on technology that could “change space travel forever”

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow George Sowers is featured in this video about how a team of Mines researchers are partnering with Lunar Outpost to compete in the NASA Break the Ice Challenge.  Mines has competed in this challenge to harvest lunar ice deposits to harvest to get water on the moon for the last several years.  December 4, 2023.  

‘Lunar gold rush’: NASA wants to mine the moon 11/1/2023

‘Lunar gold rush’: NASA wants to mine the moon

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Angel Abbud-Madrid contributes to this article about how mining the moon isn’t just fodder for the movies.  Scientists at NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey are using their Earthly expertise to identify and catalog resources on the celestial body to look for valuable materials — from minerals and crushed rock that can be used to make dwellings and equipment, to ice that can be turned into drinking water and even rocket fuel.  November 1, 2023.

Things Are Looking Up for Asteroid Mining 10/20/2023

Things Are Looking Up for Asteroid Mining

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributed to this article about how asteroids are rich with the metals used in clean energy technologies. As demand soars, advocates argue that mining them in space might be better than mining them on Earth. While some companies are exploring the controversial idea of scooping cobalt, nickel, and platinum from the seafloor, some asteroids could harbor the same minerals in abundance—and have no wildlife that could be harmed during their extraction.  October 20, 2023.

Mining in space: How Colorado students and engineers are helping NASA plan for lunar colonization 9/11/2023

Mining in space: How Colorado students and engineers are helping NASA plan for lunar colonization

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow George Sowers contributed to this article about how students at the Colorado School of Mines have partnered with Lunar Outpost, a space exploration company based in Arvada, to tackle NASA’s challenge. Their team of people have designed and are now testing robot rovers near Watkins, Colorado, to see if they can drill concrete (a stand-in fort ice) and haul pieces to an outpost.  September 11, 2023.

Mines, Lunar Outpost test lunar excavation rover in 15-day durability demonstration 9/11/2023

Mines, Lunar Outpost test lunar excavation rover in 15-day durability demonstration

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow George Sowers is featured in this article about how the Outpost Digger System is going to operate for 15 consecutive days at Colorado Air and Space Port starting Sept. 9.  The 15-day test, part of NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, began Sept. 9 at the Colorado Air and Space Port near Watkins. Under the terms of the challenge, the two-rover Outpost Digger System must excavate, transport and dump at least 12 metric tons of concrete-hard lunar regolith simulant over a continuous 15-day test period. The demonstration will be live streamed to NASA officials.  September 11, 2023.

Will Mining the Moon and Asteroids Be Worth the Trouble? 9/8/2023

Will Mining the Moon and Asteroids Be Worth the Trouble?

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Angel Abbud-Madrid contributes to this article about how mining water, metals, and oxygen from the Moon and asteroids seems promising, but only if these space-based resources are reasonably accessible.  The new era of space exploration is opening entirely new possibilities, including the tantalizing prospect of mining for resources on the Moon and asteroids. Sounds exciting—and potentially very profitable—but the reality of the situation is that space mining is completely uncharted territory.   September 5, 2023.

America Needs a Strategy for Space-Based Solar Power 7/2/2023

America Needs a Strategy for Space-Based Solar Power

Payne Institute Fellow Alex Gilbert and Leet W. Wood write about how solar power beamed from space is exactly the kind of leadership-defining, world-changing bets that the United States should be making this century.  By capturing solar energy in outer space, without the many factors that make terrestrial solar intermittent, SBSP can unlock a whole new class of baseload energy technologies to provide clean energy and reduce carbon emissions.  July 2, 2023.