NASA plans build prototype Mini Bee spacecraft to test breakthrough Optical Mining technology for harvesting valuable materials from asteroids, boulders, and regolith in microgravity.
Apis is a breakthrough mission and flight system architecture designed to revolutionise NASA’s human exploration of deep space and to enable massive space industrialisation and human settlement.
This flight demonstration mission concept proposes a method of asteroid resource harvesting called optical mining. Optical mining is an approach for excavating an asteroid and extracting water and other volatiles into an inflatable bag.
Called Mini Bee, the mission concept aims to prove optical mining, in conjunction with other innovative spacecraft systems, can be used to obtain propellant in space. The proposed architecture includes resource prospecting, extraction and delivery.
Using rocket propellant produced in space will reduce the cost of doing everything else in space, initiating a virtuous cycle for the off-Earth supply chain and transportation network. Before that can happen, though, we must develop the system that can get the whole process started.
The way in which Mini Bee and the other mining vehicles work (including the larger planned Queen Bee) is through asteroid encapsulation, mining via the concentration of sunlight to induce spalling, and the collection and subsequent cryo-storage of released volatiles. The asteroids targeted for this process are mostly carbonaceous chondrite NEAs. This is because carbonaceous chondrites usually contain a high concentration of water and NEAs are both abundant and locationally convenient.
To break up the captured asteroid the mining vehicle uses the Optical Mining process which involves the concentration of sunlight onto a focused region of its rocky surface. Repeated short applications of concentrated light are reflected onto the asteroid which heats the top surface layer of material and its trapped volatiles. Applied heating leads to thermal stress fractures in the material’s surface layer and outgassing of trapped volatiles. Released gaseous volatiles then propel away fractured particles of the asteroid in a process called spalling. The resultant spall particles and outgassed volatiles are then captured and stored separately.
TransAstra Corporation’s asteroid encapsulation and Optical Mining excavation process. After encapsulating an asteroid, concentrated solar energy is focused on a region of the asteroid, causing volatiles to evaporate and materials to fracture. Credit: TransAstra Corporation
The Honey Bee is sized to fit within a 5.2m (17ft) diameter payload fairing and will be capable performing three missions that each return 100 tons of volatiles.
Their goal is to help make industrial processes in space possible. Mission and business analysis funded by a combination of private, NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), Emerging Space, and SBIR sources projects over $300B in savings for NASA HEOMD while enabling affordable CIS-Lunar tourism and space industries.
Though this article focuses on mining vehicles, the Apis architecture has many other elements such as a reusable deep space tug and a consumables depot.
The Honey Bee system in its fully expanded form, shown after encapsulating an asteroid in its containment bag (yellow bag at bottom). Credit: TransAstra Corporation
NASA selected the Phase III proposals through a review process that evaluated innovation and technical viability of the proposed projects. All projects still are in the early stages of development, but this final phase is designed to mature technologies so they can be transitioned to government and industry for implementation.
“This is the first year NASA offered a NIAC Phase III opportunity, and there were many strong proposals,” said Jason Derleth, NIAC program executive. “We selected two proposals because we think both of the technologies could positively impact the industry. We are excited that these technology concepts could help humanity explore space in new ways.”
Joel Sercel of TransAstra stated that he believes the Honey Bee system, if used in a three vehicle fleet, will be fully capable of supplying the volatiles demanded for next decade of space exploration and development.
If successful NASA plans the larger Queen Bee system, in which 5,000 tons of volatiles could be returned from processing a 40 meter class asteroid. This system would launch to space in a highly collapsed configuration sized to fit in the 9m (30ft) diameter payload of a super heavy class rocket such as Starship (currently being developed by SpaceX). Once deployed, Queen Bee would be capable of six two-year missions, that in total would return around 15,000 tons of volatile ices to cislunar space.
Inflatable structures are an enabling technology for these asteroid mining systems since they allow the system to be launched into space in a small stowed configuration that can then expand to full size after arrival.
The NIAC program supports visionary research ideas through multiple progressive phases of study. While NIAC will award two 2019 Phase III studies, the program expects to award one Phase III per year in subsequent years.
Optical Mining of Asteroids, Moons, and Planets to Enable Sustainable Human Exploration and Space Industrialisation - Image Credit: Joel Sercel
NIAC partners with forward-thinking scientists, engineers and citizen inventors from across the nation to help maintain America’s leadership in air and space. NIAC is funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is responsible for developing the cross-cutting, pioneering new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.
Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon within five years, NASA’s lunar exploration plans are based on a two-phase approach: the first is focused on speed – landing on the Moon by 2024 – while the second will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028. We then will use what we learn on the Moon to prepare to send astronauts to Mars.
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