HILO, Hawai’i (PISCES PR) — NASA has plans to put humans back on the Moon as early as 2025 and ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) will be a crucial technology for establishing the infrastructure needed to sustain humans in the harsh lunar environment. Using raw, native materials, ISRU can provide vital resources like breathable air, tools or building blocks for shelters.
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HILO, HI (PISCES PR) — Masten Space Systems together with Pacific International Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) has been awarded a NASA Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase 1 grant of up to $125,000 to develop a low-energy, additive construction method for the moon and Mars.
When humans go back to the moon, they will need materials to build shelter, infrastructure and crucial components for survival and operations. Not only that, but they will need an energy-efficient technique that takes raw materials and turns them into usable products—all in the vacuum of space.
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HILO, HI (PISCES PR) — The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) is launching a new program offering remote or on-site access to a lunar analog environment with a planetary rover. Called Hawaiʻi Analog for Lunar Operations (H4LO), the program includes an ODG Alpha Argo rover with open payload design, allowing interested parties to test various instruments and devices for lunar and Mars exploration. The rover can be […]
HILO, HI (PR) — After nearly a year of research, Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) scientists have developed a new ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) process that significantly reduces the time and energy needed to produce sintered basalt products. The sintering temperature required to fuse raw particles into a cohesive material has been reduced by more than 20 percent.
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HILO, Hawaii (PISCES PR) — The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) completed a large batch of sintered basalt tiles last month for testing by NASA’s Swamp Works at Kennedy Space Center. Thirty tiles will be assessed as a launch and landing pad material. The testing will be conducted by Masten Space Systems in Mojave, Calif.
Earlier this year, Masten tested a 12” x 12” x 1” tile made by PISCES, subjecting it to a two-second rocket burst fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. The results of the test caught the interest of Swamp Works, who requested the latest batch of tiles.
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Planetary LEGOs (Credit: PISCES)
HILO, Hawaii (PISCES PR) — These LEGO blocks are not the familiar plastics bricks you may have pieced together as a kid or given to your children to play with. In fact, these blocks could one day form the foundations of habitats and infrastructure supporting astronauts on places like Mars, the Moon and other worlds.
The green oval highlights the plumes Hubble observed on Europa. The area also corresponds to a warm region on Europa’s surface. The map is based on observations by the Galileo spacecraft (Credits: NASA/ESA/STScI/USGS)
Honeybee Robotics will begin developing new technologies that would allow a lander to drill into the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa and collect samples for analysis with the help of a pair of NASA small business awards.
HILO, Hawaii (PISCES PR) — Since its founding in 1958, NASA has solely relied on RF (radio frequency) technology to facilitate communications between spacecrafts in the heavens and bases on Earth. While RF continues to be the mainstay for space communication, rapidly advancing technologies and science instruments, as well as an increasingly crowded RF spectrum are driving the need for an alternative and superior method.
HILO, Hawaii (PISCES PR) — During the Hawai’i Aerospace Summit in Honolulu last October, PISCES Board Chairperson and entrepreneur Henk Rogers called for the construction of a prototype lunar base on the Big Island that could catapult the State of Hawai’i into the frontlines of the global aerospace industry.
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PISCES’ John Hamilton (r) in the field at Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho, with two simulation astronauts. (Credit: PISCES)
HILO, Hawaii (PISCES PR) — This November, PISCES is partnering with NASA’s BASALT research group to conduct a full-scale Mars simulation exercise on the rugged lava terrain in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park (HVNP). BASALT (Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains) is one of NASA’s prestigious PSTAR (Planetary Science and Technology Through Analog Research) grant programs, combining their Science Directorate and Exploration Mission Directorates.
The main goal of BASALT is to develop the mission technologies and protocols necessary for anticipated human missions on the Red Planet. Future Mars astronauts will be able to use these valuable methods to research and operate on the Martian terrain, extracting samples for geologists, geochemists and astro-biologists to search for potential signs of microbial life.
