Integrated Regolith Excavation and Water Extraction Using Auger-Dryer Systems

AeroFly’s integrated excavation and water extraction system is designed to drastically reduce the cost and logistical burden of sustaining human presence on the Moon by enabling efficient in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). By eliminating the need to launch and transport water from Earth, this technology significantly reduces payload mass and mission costs, making long-term lunar operations more feasible. Building on our team’s proven excavation technology from the NASA Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, this system combines excavation, volatile extraction, and real-time resource collection into a single continuous operation. The auger-based drying unit, optimized through high-fidelity simulations and advanced thermal management, ensures efficient extraction of water and other volatiles from lunar regolith, meeting NASA’s target of 1.5 kg of water per hour under the extreme conditions of permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). By integrating excavation and processing into one system, material handling losses are minimized, energy efficiency is increased, and scalable ISRU capabilities are achieved, making this a mission-critical technology for Artemis, Gateway, and future Mars exploration. Phase I funding will support system validation through subscale prototyping, computational modeling, and regolith simulant testing to refine auger geometry, sublimation dynamics, and filtration efficiency, ensuring the system is optimized for sustained lunar habitation.

AeroFly’s lunar ice mining system directly supports NASA’s Moon-to-Mars objectives by providing a sustainable water extraction solution for lunar surface operations. This technology enables on-site production of water for life support, propellant generation, and industrial applications, significantly reducing logistical challenges and launch mass for long-duration lunar missions. By integrating excavation and volatile extraction, this system eliminates the inefficiencies of separate material handling steps, ensuring continuous and scalable ISRU operations in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). Designed to meet NASA’s 1.5 kg/hr. volatile extraction requirement, this system provides a reliable and high-throughput ISRU solution that aligns with NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII) and could be deployed via Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) landers for demonstration and operational use at Artemis Base Camp. This technology directly addresses multiple NASA ISRU shortfalls, including the challenges associated with extracting and separating water from extraterrestrial surface material (Shortfall 1578) and the need for in-situ resource collection in PSRs (ISRU 567), where volatile-rich regolith must be efficiently excavated and processed under extreme environmental conditions. By incorporating a regolith-tolerant design the system ensures long-term functionality without excessive maintenance, while its ability to handle hard regolith and ice deposits (ISRU 384) improves extraction efficiency. By delivering an integrated and high-throughput solution for volatile recovery, AeroFly’s system directly supports NASA’s ISRU and sustainability goals for long-term lunar habitation and exploration. Beyond NASA missions, AeroFly’s integrated volatile extraction system has broad commercial potential in space resource utilization, terrestrial mining, and environmental remediation. The technology’s high-efficiency thermal processing and material handling capabilities could be adapted for asteroid mining, enabling private-sector companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX, and ispace to extract water and volatiles from celestial bodies. The system’s ability to process regolith for water and other volatiles also supports lunar commercial ventures focused on in-space fuel depots and industrial resource extraction. On Earth, this technology could improve remote resource extraction, particularly in extreme environments, where autonomous volatile recovery is essential. Additionally, the system’s advanced filtration and gas separation techniques have potential applications in industrial gas processing, chemical engineering, and environmental cleanup. AeroFly aims to partner with commercial space firms and terrestrial industries to develop scalable ISRU and resource extraction solutions for a broad range of applications

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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