{"id":24717,"date":"2019-05-09T09:20:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T13:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=24717"},"modified":"2020-02-13T12:28:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T17:28:04","slug":"mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining the Moon For Ice Focus of UCF Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-24718 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/2lunar_construction-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/2lunar_construction-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/2lunar_construction-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/2lunar_construction-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/2lunar_construction-299x199.jpg 299w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/2lunar_construction.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>BY ROBERT WELLS<\/p>\n<p>With space set to be the site of the next \u201cgold rush,\u201d University of Central Florida researchers are helping prospect a spot for a major first step in the upcoming scramble \u2013 creating a lunar mining outpost.<\/p>\n<p>The work will be funded through a recently announced grant from NASA\u2019s Innovative Advanced Concepts program.<\/p>\n<p>The project entails UCF researchers working with California aerospace company TransAstra Corp. to study an economical\u00a0way to mine the plentiful supply of ice known to exist in the polar regions of the moon. The principal investigator of the project is Joel Sercel, president of TransAstra. Sercel holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from The California Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n<p>TransAstra is developing the technology to mine the ice. The UCF team, comprised of Kevin Cannon, a postdoctoral scholar in UCF\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/physics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Department of Physics,<\/a>\u00a0and Dan Britt, a UCF physics professor, will provide expertise on site selection, lunar-terrain characteristics, and properties of lunar ice deposits.<\/p>\n<p>While ice may be taken for granted on Earth, in space it serves as a valuable resource when turned to water and split into hydrogen and oxygen to become rocket fuel propellant that can be stored in depots on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese depots are the gas stations that allow you to have infrastructure and economy in space,\u201d Cannon says. \u201cGetting that water out of the ground is a first step because it\u2019s just so expensive to launch it from Earth. So, you really cut down on the cost of space development by mining it on the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The researchers expect the United States to be back on the moon within five years \u2013 with at least robots beginning the mining operations \u2013 and then actual outposts to be created within 10 years. Renewed interest in the moon has included recent efforts by China and Israel to land there, as well as from many commercial companies working on plans to mine and develop the moon.<\/p>\n<p>A mining post would have to balance a need to be close to a region cold enough to harbor frozen volatiles such as water but also near sunlight, a vital source of energy for solar-powered equipment doing work in space.<\/p>\n<p>Such an outpost could have multiple components with a power source located on a sunlit peak, mining operations in topographic lows, and storage facilities for mining vehicles and propellant, the researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>One of the challenges will also be building on lunar permafrost, which is solid until it\u2019s hot, and then it begins to melt.<\/p>\n<p>Britt said overcoming this challenge could involve using similar building strategies to those used in polar regions on Earth, such as in Alaska, that involve using insulation or building below the permafrost.<\/p>\n<p>Establishing an outpost on the moon ensures humans\u2019 continued journey to expand beyond the farthest known limits, Cannon said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been this kind of stasis in terms of getting humans out of low Earth orbit and actually starting to develop space,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cI think this is a small first step, but it\u2019s important to establish something like an outpost that is semi-permanent. I think that goes a long way to getting people into space to stay sustainably.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Britt likened the renewed push for space development to the Age of Discovery that took place from the 1400s to the 1700s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want to change the parameters of how human civilization lives, you have to explore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>UCF is a leader in planetary science and off-world geology. Britt is director of the\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/class\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science<\/a>, a part of NASA\u2019s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute housed at UCF. His work has been incorporated in multiple Mars landers, and he is co-investigator on NASA\u2019s Lucy, New Horizons, Mars Pathfinder and Deep Space 1 missions. Asteroid 4395 is named DanBritt after him in recognition of his contributions to asteroid research. He is a UCF Pegasus Professor and earned his doctorate in geological sciences from Brown University. He joined UCF in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>Britt helps oversee UCF\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/class\/exolithlab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Exolith Lab<\/a>\u00a0with its founder Cannon. The lab is a nonprofit extension of the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science that produces simulated lunar, planetary and asteroid surface material for use in scientific research.<\/p>\n<p>Cannon received his doctorate in Earth, environmental and planetary sciences from Brown University. He joined UCF in 2017 and studies the composition of small planetary bodies and Mars with an interest in accessing the resources they may provide. In addition to running the Exolith Lab, Cannon supervises a number of UCF undergraduates in applied research projects, including planetary-resource extraction and plant growth in simulated regolith. His work has been published in numerous journals, and he can be found on Twitter at\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kmcannon?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@kmcannon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY ROBERT WELLS With space set to be the site of the next \u201cgold rush,\u201d University of Central Florida researchers are helping prospect a spot for a major first step in the upcoming scramble \u2013 creating a lunar mining outpost. The work will be funded through a recently announced grant from NASA\u2019s Innovative Advanced Concepts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":24718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,13,14,5377,28],"tags":[6177,3539],"class_list":["post-24717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-physics-departments","category-research","category-top-news","tag-nasa-innovative-advanced-concepts","tag-ucf-department-of-physics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mining the Moon For Ice Focus of UCF Research - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mining the Moon For Ice Focus of UCF Research - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY ROBERT WELLS With space set to be the site of the next \u201cgold rush,\u201d University of Central Florida researchers are helping prospect a spot for a major first step in the upcoming scramble \u2013 creating a lunar mining outpost. The work will be funded through a recently announced grant from NASA\u2019s Innovative Advanced Concepts [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-09T13:20:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-13T17:28:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/2lunar_construction.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kyle Martin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kyle Martin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kyle Martin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6e7fb06e1762315ca4a62c08e625d0f4\"},\"headline\":\"Mining the Moon For Ice Focus of UCF Research\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-09T13:20:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-13T17:28:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":797,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/2lunar_construction.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts\",\"UCF Department of Physics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"COS News\",\"News\",\"Physics\",\"Research\",\"Top News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/mining-the-moon-for-ice-focus-of-ucf-research\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mining the Moon For Ice Focus of UCF Research - 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