The problems with lunar ISRU
by Donald Rapp
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
If a committee is allowed to discuss a bad idea long enough, it will eventually adopt it because of all the work they put into it. - K. Kruickshank
In situ resource utilization (ISRU) is a concept for increasing the efficiency of space missions by utilizing indigenous resources on a planet or moon in order to reduce the amount of material that must be brought from Earth. If the savings resulting from reduction of resources brought from Earth outweigh the cost of prospecting, developing, testing, validating in situ, and implementing ISRU in missions, it follows that ISRU will have a favorable benefit/cost ratio. While many ISRU advocates within NASA seem to take it on faith that the benefit/cost ratio is always favorable for ISRU, my analysis indicates that this is not always so. Whereas a stronger case can be made for use of ISRU on human missions to Mars, the case for lunar ISRU in the current ESAS architecture does not stand up to scrutiny.
More at: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/697/1
The problems with lunar ISRU
The whole thread (38 posts)
- The problems with lunar ISRU
- Was wondering how long it would take for them to notice.
- re: Weak article
- The problem with Mars ISRU
- Was wondering how long it would take for them to notice.