[Paper Review] Autonomous Multirobot Technologies for Mars Mining Base Construction and Operation

Jekan Thangavelautham, Aman Chandra+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Oct 9, 2019

Astro and Planetary Science13 references4 citations

TL;DR

This paper proposes an autonomous multirobot system for constructing and operating a Mars-based mining base that extracts and launches water using renewable energy and a mass driver. By deploying 100 robots to build and operate the base in-situ, the approach reduces energy needs by fivefold and accelerates construction fivefold compared to human-led operations, making in-situ resource utilization for a space economy feasible.

ABSTRACT

Beyond space exploration, the next critical step towards living and working in space requires developing a space economy. One important challenge with this space-economy is ensuring the low-cost transport of raw materials from one gravity-well to another. The escape delta-v of 11.2 km/s from Earth makes this proposition very expensive. Transporting materials from the Moon takes 2.4 km/s and from Mars 5.0 km/s. Based on these factors, the Moon and Mars can become colonies to export material into this space economy. One critical question is what are the resources required to sustain a space economy? Water has been identified as a critical resource both to sustain human-life but also for use in propulsion, attitude-control, power, thermal storage and radiation protection systems. Water may be obtained off-world through In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) in the course of human or robotic space exploration. Based upon these important findings, we developed an energy model to determine the feasibility of developing a mining base on Mars that mines and exports water (transports water on a Mars escape trajectory). Our designs for a mining base utilize renewable energy sources namely photovoltaics and solar-thermal concentrators to provide power to construct the base, keep it operational and export the water using a mass driver (electrodynamic railgun). Our studies found the key to keeping the mining base simple and effective is to make it robotic. Teams of robots (consisting of 100 infrastructure robots) would be used to construct the entire base using locally available resources and fully operate the base. This would decrease energy needs by 5-folds. Furthermore, the base can be built 5-times faster using robotics and 3D printing. This shows that automation and robotics is the key to making such a base technologically feasible.

Motivation & Objective

• To enable a sustainable space economy by developing a low-cost method for transporting raw materials from Mars.
• To address the high delta-v cost of launching from Earth (11.2 km/s) by utilizing Mars as a source of exportable resources.
• To identify water as a critical resource for life support, propulsion, and radiation shielding in deep space missions.
• To design a robotic, autonomous mining base on Mars that uses in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) and renewable energy.
• To demonstrate that multirobot systems can drastically reduce energy and time requirements for base construction and operation.

Proposed method

• The base is powered by photovoltaics and solar-thermal concentrators to enable sustained operations and resource processing.
• A mass driver (electrodynamic railgun) is used to launch water off-Mars, achieving escape velocity with minimal propellant.
• 100 autonomous infrastructure robots are deployed to construct the base using local regolith and 3D printing technologies.
• Robots perform all construction and operational tasks, eliminating the need for human presence and reducing energy demands.
• An energy model is developed to evaluate the feasibility of the system under various power and mass constraints.
• The system is designed to be fully autonomous, with minimal ground control, relying on distributed robotics and adaptive control algorithms.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Can a robotic, autonomous system construct and operate a mining base on Mars using only in-situ resources and renewable energy?
• RQ2 What is the energy efficiency of a robotic mining base compared to a human-tended base?
• RQ3 How does the use of robots affect the time required to construct and commission a Mars mining base?
• RQ4 What role does water play in enabling a sustainable space economy beyond life support?
• RQ5 Can a mass driver system be effectively powered and sustained by solar energy to launch water from Mars?

Key findings

• The use of 100 autonomous robots reduces the total energy requirement for base construction and operation by a factor of five compared to human-crewed operations.
• Robotic construction enables the base to be built five times faster than with human-led methods, due to continuous operation and optimized workflows.
• The energy model confirms that a Mars mining base powered by photovoltaics and solar-thermal concentrators can sustainably produce and launch water.
• The base can achieve Mars escape velocity using a mass driver powered solely by solar energy, making propellant-free launch feasible.
• The integration of 3D printing with in-situ materials significantly reduces the need to transport construction materials from Earth.
• Autonomous robotics is identified as the key enabler for making a Mars mining base technologically and economically viable.