Background
Creating a sustainable Mars colony has become a prominent topic in today's aerospace community. One of the main constraints limiting interplanetary travel is carrying enough fuel for a round-trip flight. While this problem can be reduced by increasing efficiency of orbital maneuvers or propulsion systems, these methods are not effective enough to create a viable, long-term solution to a sustainable Mars colony.
Recently, NASA discovered large ice deposits on the just under the surface of Mars which triggered a revolutionary solution to the aforementioned problem: harvest the water, split it into H2 and 02 atoms, and use these for fuel. This is an intricate process because the ice is toxic and is covered by a layer called overburden that can range in micro-structure from sand to hard stone. Another difficulty is that most of the atmosphere of Mars has a pressure below the Armstrong limit, meaning when exposed to the atmosphere, ice will sublimate into a gas. To better understand the process of subsurface ice mining and to spur innovation, NASA created the RASC-AL (or Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkages) Special Edition competition.
To meet the needs of this competition, which formally begins in October and concludes in June, the team is designing the Planetary Ice Extractor (P.I.E), where this device will prospect for ice, drill through various overburden layers, melt the ice, extract the melted water, and filter the water (as seen in the schematic below). During the Fall semester, team 9 developed a concept of operations, designed the mechanical system, and designed the electrical systems. During the Spring, Team 9 will fabricate and integrate subsystems,validate each of the subsystems, and then perform an integrated validation.
Recently, NASA discovered large ice deposits on the just under the surface of Mars which triggered a revolutionary solution to the aforementioned problem: harvest the water, split it into H2 and 02 atoms, and use these for fuel. This is an intricate process because the ice is toxic and is covered by a layer called overburden that can range in micro-structure from sand to hard stone. Another difficulty is that most of the atmosphere of Mars has a pressure below the Armstrong limit, meaning when exposed to the atmosphere, ice will sublimate into a gas. To better understand the process of subsurface ice mining and to spur innovation, NASA created the RASC-AL (or Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkages) Special Edition competition.
To meet the needs of this competition, which formally begins in October and concludes in June, the team is designing the Planetary Ice Extractor (P.I.E), where this device will prospect for ice, drill through various overburden layers, melt the ice, extract the melted water, and filter the water (as seen in the schematic below). During the Fall semester, team 9 developed a concept of operations, designed the mechanical system, and designed the electrical systems. During the Spring, Team 9 will fabricate and integrate subsystems,validate each of the subsystems, and then perform an integrated validation.