Extra-Terrestrial Water Extraction

Human spaceflight, from the outset, has relied entirely on the use of terrestrial resources. Everything we as a species have accomplished has been with the aid of materials processed from our own planet. To date, all orbital missions and the few lunar expeditions have been limited enough in crew size and duration so as to obviate the development of alternative sources of supplies. With the nation’s new space vision taking form, however, making use of extra-terrestrial resources will soon become imperative to reducing mission costs and complexity. Sustained human exploration of the solar system will require the ability to develop off-Earth resources. In situ resource utilization is of utmost importance to the fulfillment of this nation’s new space vision. Particularly, water is the most essential resource for human existence and one of the most costly in terms of getting it to space; in addition, water can be processed to produce rocket fuel. By lowering mission costs, developing an off-Earth water source will dramatically increase the feasibility of robust long-duration and deep-space manned missions. Though plentiful on Earth, water was once thought to be sparse throughout most of the rest of the solar system; however, evidence shows it is existent on the Moon, on Mars, in comets, in asteroids, and elsewhere. In most cases, the water is not available in large pure ores but is commingled with the material in which it is found. Extra-Terrestrial Water Extraction is a simple process that employs basic scientific principles to remove water from an