Regolith resource requirements for an expanding Mars facility - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Regolith resource requirements for an expanding Mars facility

Jonathan Clarke and David Willson Mars Society Australia

The Issue

• What scope of mining will be needed to support Mars
• perations?
• How will these change as the scale of operations

increase?

• What equipment will be needed to support this?
• How can this be tested on Earth?

Brian Versteeg

Staging

• S1 – initial missions (4-6 crew)
• FMARS analogue
• S2 – Follow up missions/semi -

permanent station (6-12 crew) – MDRS analogue

• S3 – Permanent facility (15-

100 crew) – Resolute analogue

Excavator Berm Landing pad ISRU plant

Regolith Requirements

Regolith water-based ISRU (propellants, O2, crew water)

MISSION CREW MODE TONNES H2 TONNES H2O TONNES REGOLITH* DAILY TONNES (2 YRS) BUCKETS PER DAY RANGER BUCKETS PER DAY BOBCAT Mars Oz 4 Semi- direct 1.6 14.4 144 0.2 1 Mars Direct v2 4 Direct 8.6 77.4 774 1.1 5 1 SpaceX ITS v1^ 100 Direct 63 563 5630 7.7 34 8

*Assuming 10% H2O ^Based on L Pieniazek & N Vlietstra, pers. comm.

Other requirements

Clearing Excavation Fill Foundations

Demand will increase exponentially with size of settlement!

Resolute, Nunavut

Trenching and pipe laying Cut and fill Platforms Causeways

ISRU plant Track clearing/grading Site levelling Buried infrastructure (radiation protection) Site levelling Site levelling Site levelling Draglines

OPERATION INITIAL MISSIONS PERMANENT STATION Excavation Bucket on utility vehicle Face excavator, trench excavator (common earth moving chassis) Trenching Trench excavator on utility vehicle Trench excavator, bucket wheel, (common earth moving chassis) Levelling Blade on utility vehicle Bulldozer (common earth moving chassis) Transport Tip tray on utility vehicle Tip truck (common transport chassis) Augering/ drilling Auger or drill on utility vehicle Drill rig (common transport chassis) Rock breaker Attachment to common earth moving chassis)

Equipment Requirements

Utility vehicle Transport chassis Earth moving chassis

Even so, Mars exploration and initial settlements will not require enormous mining capacity

EXAMPLE OF SMALL SCALE MINING – RALLINGA TIN MINE, SW TASMANIA

• Alluvial tin 0.5 kg (cassiterite) per tonne
• 1.5 m overburden, pay gravels 0.5 m thick
• ~5 tonnes cassiterite produced each year
• Plant processed ~5 tonnes per hour, 36 hrs per

week

• “Mum and Dad” operation
• ~ 10,000 tonnes of gravel & 22,000 tonnes
• verburden excavated yearly
• Area effected annually 10,000 square metres

(100 X 100 m)

REGOLITH EXTRACTION ON MARS WILL BE SMALLER THAN SMALLEST TERRESTRIAL MINES

Dingo Bucket = 340 kg Toolcat Bucket = 590 kg Bobcat S590 Bucket = 954 kg Utility vehicle Bucket = 228 kg

Meeting Requirements Analogue examples

Research possibilities

• The small scale of mining to needed to support initial missions

(<10 tonnes per day) allows full scale testing – avoiding scaling issues.

• A diversity of off-the-shelf hardware can be adapted for low to

medium fidelity testing (including electric and tele-operated systems).

• The robust nature of the off-the-shelf equipment will allow

testing in a wide range of field environments.

• The full scale nature testing of mining equipment also allows

processing plant to be similarly tested at full scale.

• Ideal for student team projects and corporate sponsorship!

Conclusions

• Initial regolith mining will likely be minor site

works and water extraction with water extraction dominating

• Site works will likely dominate needs of larger

settlements, even with increased water extraction for large scale propellant manufacture

• Even so, daily regolith handling rates will be low
• Mining and processing concepts can be tested

at full scale with off-the-shelf technology

Questions