Advancing Commercial Space

Long duration missions to planetary bodies and deep space will require new technological developments that support human habitation in transit and on distant bodies. Microorganisms are unique from the standpoint that they can be employed as self-replicating bio-factories to produce both native and engineered mission relevant bio-products. ISRU using In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) to generate mission relevant products could be logical for many applications. Products that consist of a significant amount of carbon (e.g. fuels, and foods etc.) could potentially be derived from single-carbon molecules available on long duration missions. NASA Ames has developed a novel patent-pending technology for an in-space bio-manufacturing of mission relevant bio-products using methane as the sole carbon substrate.

The Modular Artificial-Gravity Orbital Refinery Spacecraft is a novel technology from NASA Ames Research Center for in-situ refining or recycling of materials in space, including mass from asteroids, Mars moons, orbiting "space junk" debris, and for in-situ creation of products from operations in low or micro-gravity environments. There has been considerable interest in the exploration and mining of asteroids with spacecraft as well as mitigating the growing threat of space debris. Refining operations, such as centrifugal refining processes, introduce challenges for operating in space that are not relevant on Earth, including the need for gravity in order for refining operations to function properly. This technology provides an effective and efficient approach to address these needs and challenges.

Lipids are organic molecules used by all life on Earth, primarily for building membranes that encompass cells. The analysis of lipid biomarkers has gained increasing importance within environmental and archaeological fields because biomarkers are representative of particular plant and animal sources. Proven “gold standard” laboratory techniques for lipid biomarker extraction are laborious, with many opportunities for human error. As a solution, NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel technology that provides an autonomous, miniaturized fluidic system for lipid analysis. The technology, in a single instrument, can accept an unprocessed soil, rock, or ice sample, comminute the sample, extract lipids via sonication and blending, filter out mineral residue, concentrate the analyte, and deliver the aliquot to downstream analytical instruments for molecular characterization, without requiring intervention from a human operator.

NASA has developed a novel approach for macroscale biomaterial production by combining synthetic biology with 3D printing. Cells are biologically engineered to deposit desired materials, such as proteins or metals, derived from locally available resources. The bioengineered cells build different materials in a specified 3D pattern to produce novel microstructures with precise molecular composition, thickness, print pattern, and shape. Scaffolds and reagents can be used for further control over material product. This innovation provides modern design and fabrication techniques for custom-designed organic or organic-inorganic composite biomaterials produced from limited resources.

Rapid socio-economic development and technological advancement has made the hazardous chemical components of end-of-life electronics waste (e-waste) an imminent challenge. Conventional extraction methods rely on energy-intensive processes and are inefficient when applied to recycling e-waste or waste streams that contain mixed materials and small amounts of metals. NASA Ames Research Center has developed an inexpensive biological approach to removing or adsorbing a target substance or material, for example a metal, non-metal toxin, dye, or small molecule drug, from solution. Using a substrate such as fungal mycelium or chitin, with a peptide, the target substance is isolated and removed or recovered. This approach has a variety of useful applications, from cleaning water sources or recovering chemicals from aqueous solutions to minimize waste.

For remote sensing spectrometers, wavelength-scanned laser emissions are used to capture the absorption spectrum of targets to perform measurement of soil and/or gas. Previous techniques to accomplish these measurements have involved combining multiple fixed wavelength lasers to detect a single species, limiting the scope and effectiveness of the instruments. This new technology alleviates this problem.

Innovators at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have developed a cutting-edge quantum cascade laser (QCL) source and terahertz transceiver that integrates a surface plasmon waveguide, addressing the growing demand for compact, high-resolution systems in communication, material characterization, and metrology. This state-of-the-art technology is designed for planetary science missions, enabling unprecedented characterization of planetary surfaces, including molecular inhomogeneities, isotope ratios, and compositional variation with depth. The QCL source and transceiver are optimized for use in a variety of applications, including cubesats, suborbital missions, and space-based instruments, making it integral to NASA’s exploration and science missions. The system plays a critical role supporting In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) by mapping and quantifying lunar water resources, providing ground-truth validation for remote measurements. Its capabilities extend to analyzing surface properties such as dielectric constants, conductivity, thermal inertia, surface roughness, and porosity, advancing the potential for sustainable lunar exploration and beyond.

Understanding the composition of planetary surfaces is crucial for advancing space exploration and preparing for future human missions to the Moon and Mars. NASA’s proposed International Mars Ice Mapping (I-MIM) mission aims to use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to identify near-surface ice deposits on Mars, which could serve as a vital resource for future explorers. To support this effort, scientists must first determine how radar signals interact with the diverse materials found on these planetary bodies, such as rock, regolith, and buried ice. An understanding of these interactions is critical to designing specialized SARs for such missions, as well as to determining their detection capabilities in specific environments. Traditional methods of analyzing such materials have provided valuable insights, but they often lack the ability to assess the 3-D electromagnetic (EM) properties of rock and soil, which are critical for improving radar-based detection capabilities. Furthermore, existing techniques require regularly shaped samples (e.g., rectangles). Martian and other planetary rock samples brought back to Earth are precious and cannot be altered, eliminating these techniques as an option. Recognizing this challenge, a team of engineers and scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) have developed an advanced laboratory-based system for measuring the dielectric and magnetic properties of arbitrarily shaped samples with high accuracy.

Many municipal curbside recycling programs fund their operations by selling recyclable waste. Unfortunately, over the past several years, the price of recyclable plastic and glass waste has dropped due to lack of demand. The lack of demand also means that more recyclable waste plastic and glass is being sent to landfills rather than being put to further use in the market. This places a larger strain on waste processing facilities, landfills, and the environment. Engineers at Kennedy Space Center have developed a new process for preparing composite materials made of a solid polymer binder and a solid filler which may, in some cases, be made from recycled sources. The material is intended to minimize the amount of plastics and recycling stream waste that goes to landfill and create additional uses/markets for recycling stream based products.

The history of construction materials and methods has evolved over time, with Portland cement concrete being the most widely used material on Earth. Constructing habitats and infrastructure on the Moon and Mars, however, requires a different approach given the lack of such conventional construction resources and materials. Recognizing the need for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) to support long-duration human missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Sidus Space have developed a novel three-dimensional print head apparatus using regolith-polymer mixtures as a building material. The invention paves the way for enabling the construction of habitats and other critical infrastructure on the Moon and other planetary bodies using available resources. The Regolith-Polymer 3D Printing System can also be adapted to work with other crushed rock materials or mixtures depending on resource availability at construction sites.

NASA Kennedy Space Center seeks partners interested in the commercial application of the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR) Excavator. NASAs Kennedy Space Center is soliciting licensees for this innovative technology. RASSOR is a teleoperated mobile robotic platform with a unique space regolith excavation capability. Its design incorporates net-zero reaction force, thus allowing it to load, haul, and dump space regolith under extremely low gravity conditions with high reliability. With space transportation costs hovering at approximately $4,000 per pound and tight launch vehicle shroud constraints, this compact, lightweight unit enables the launch of an efficient, rugged, versatile robotic excavator on precursor landing missions with minimum cost. RASSOR could also be scaled up and used for terrestrial mining operations in difficult-to-reach or dangerous locations.

Traditional micro-Raman systems are capable of performing fine-scale mineralogy; but these are used for in situ analysis. Most of the micro-Raman systems are designed and implemented for dark room operation. Such Raman systems: (1) require sample collection and (2) require shielding of daylight background radiation. With the use of continuous wave (CW) lasers and a non-time gating detection approach, it is also difficult to distinguish the biofluorescence from the mineral luminescence. These limitations will significantly lower the capability of these micro-Raman systems in terms of the variety of samples that can be analyzed.