Using Resources in Space to Sustain Human Exploration

NASA has for decades been assessing options to utilize the resources available in space – often on the Moon and Mars – to sustain long-duration human operations. It will be prohibitively expensive to send from Earth to either location sufficient resources for astronauts to carry out priority mission goals, to say nothing of eventual settlement. With NASA’s human space flight program focusing on lunar operations and technologies to enable eventual human missions to Mars, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) has become a high priority in NASA’s technology investment plans. Join Tony Darnell and Harley Thronson as they discuss the current status of ISRU with Jerry Sanders and Stephen Hoffman, both of NASA Johnson Space Center. Future in Space Hangouts are endorsed by the American Astronomical Society and the American Astronautical Society.