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May 13-14, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry
9
th
World Congress on
Page 22
Asian Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences | Volume 9
ISSN: 2249-622X
María-Paz Zorzano
National Institute of Aerospace Technology, Spain
Hydrogen chemistry in Space Exploration:
In-situ
resource utilization
A
lthough hydrogen is the most common element on
the universe, having access to large amounts of it in
space and transforming it in a way that it can be useful
for exploration is a challenge. The development of
in-situ
resource-utilization (ISRU) methods for space exploration
is a new research activity which is being supported both
by NASA and ESA. The Exploration Roadmap of ESA and
NASA to fulfil: 1) the Human and Robotic exploration of
the Moon; 2) the Deep Space Gateway and 3) the human
exploration of Mars has been defined, and the first steps
are now being implemented. However, the requirements
on propellant mass do not allow for large landed missions.
The future Mars Ascent Vehicle for humans will require
about 7.0 mT of methane and 22.7 mT of oxygen to lift-
off from Mars, back to Earth, with 4 crew members. This
represents about 80% of the weight of the spacecraft,
and this is to date one of the most critical problems that
inhibits the human exploration of Mars. Methane, CH
4
,
has been observed on the Martian surface by the Curiosity
rover, however only at trace-amount levels. The chemistry
of methane production and destruction on Mars is to date
not understood. New emerging space companies as SpaceX
have declared their intention to investigate propellant
production for Mars exploration. In addition to propellants,
such as CH
4
, water, H
2
O, is another critical product, both
for life- support systems and for its possible transformation
into hydrogen, H
2
, and oxygen, O
2
, for propulsion or again
for life-support systems. In this talk we will review where
are the main sources of hydrogen in the form of water on
Mars and the Moon and how can this water be captured
and transformed to facilitate the human and robotic
exploration of space. We will review a few options for the
sustainable production of methane on Mars, and the ISRU
concentration and purification of water. Some of these
processes may also have an industrial application on Earth.
Speaker Biography
María-Paz Zorzano is a researcher at the Centro de Astrobiología
(CAB), of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA, Spain)
and a Professor in Atmospheric Science at the Luleå University of
Technology (LTU, Sweden). She is a planetary physicist, investigating
space exploration and astrobiology. She is involved in multiple NASA
and ESA missions of exploration of the Earth, Moon and Mars, including
the Curiosity rover of the Mars Science Laboratory mission (NASA),
the Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter (ESA), the ExoMars Rover (ESA) and the
ExoMars Surface Platform (Roscosmos / ESA), as well as on proposals
for the future international exploration of the Moon through the ESA
Moon landers missions or the Deep Space Gateway. She is member
of the COSPAR Planetary Protection Panel. She has received multiple
awards related to space, such as the 2018 finalist award of the Space
Exploration Masters Challenge and 2nd prize of the InnoSpace Masters
call of 2018. She was also awarded in 2013 with a NASA Group
Achievement for her contributions to the instrument REMS on board
the Curiosity Rover. She is author of 85 refereed articles and several
book chapters.
e:
zorzanomm@cab.inta-csic.esMaría-Paz Zorzano, Asian J Biomed Pharmaceut Sci, Volume:9
DOI: 10.4066/2249-622X-C2-019
Notes: