Mobile In-Situ Mars Water Extractor (MISME)

Extracting water and volatiles from icy soils requires excavating and manipulating those soils as feedstock, but the Phoenix mission demonstrated some of the difficulties that may be encountered during such operations. The solution to these problems is an integrated mobile mining and water extraction system that uses an auger based excavation approach and an integrated water-ice extraction plant – hence, if the water-ice does sublime, it will sublime straight into the extraction system. The proposed system is an auger with a reactor and the weak link, the transfer system, is eliminated altogether. The system, called the Mobile In-Situ Mars Water Extractor (MISME), consists of the Icy-Soil Acquisition and Delivery System (ISADS), and the Volatiles Extraction and Capture System (VECS). The ISADS is a deep fluted auger that drills into the ice or icy-soils and retains material on its flutes. Upon material acquisition, the ISADS is retracted into VECS and sealed. The VECS consists of a cylindrical heat exchanger and volatiles transfer system (a reactor). This Phase I effort will focus on developing the water extraction reactor: Volatile Extraction and Capture System (VECS).

NASA applications would satisfy goals of ESMD and SMD. In particular, this water-vapor extraction could be a reconnaissance tool to map the ice distribution around the area. It also could be used (as designed) as a water-vapor production system to support human habitats. Increasing the production could be done by deploying more than one of these rovers (and hence the system would have redundancy through numbers).

This particular vapor extraction process is not limited to water, but also other volatiles. Hence, non-NASA applications include robotic acquisition of volatiles as well as soil and liquid samples from hazardous environments: chemical spills, nuclear waste, oil spills.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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