3 days ago
How NASA plans to mine the Moon
By Dean Murray
The United States has shown off how it plans to mine the Moon.
Incredible scenes show NASA testing a vehicle designed to extract vital resources that could help humans live in the lunar environment or even on Mars.
Engineers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida are experimenting with the RASSOR (Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot) on a simulated lunar surface.
RASSOR's counter-rotating drums dig up simulated moon dust to extract regolith, the loose, fragmental material found on the Moon's surface.
The opposing motion of the drums helps RASSOR grip the surface in low-gravity environments like the Moon or Mars.
On Tuesday (June 3), NASA said: "With this unique capability, RASSOR can traverse the rough surface to dig, load, haul, and dump regolith that could later be broken down into hydrogen, oxygen, or water-resources critical for sustaining human presence."
The space agency is using the foundation of RASSOR's development to inform IPEx (In-Situ Resource Utilisation Pilot Excavator), a newer vehicle being prepared for a potential technology demonstration mission on the Moon.
IPEx is still in the advanced development and testing phase and will improve on RASSOR with refinements in scale, modularity, and mission capability to support future lunar resource extraction missions.
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