Topic 5
Using local resources on Planets to live
October 19th, 2022 at 14:30 – 16:30
Egmont Palace, Brussels
Using local resources on Planets to live
When planning settlements on other celestial bodies, providing the settlers with basic materials will require a large stream of logistics, very frequent shipments, and an associated high cost. Therefore, a lot of research is ongoing onon so-called In Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU). Primary needs are oxygen and water, but also food and plant-based medicines cultivation. Several procedures have been studied on how to use material found on the surface of the Moon, to make bricks and pavements.
3D techniques could provide new possibilities if a base material could be found on the surface. Thus, the importance of Mars return missions to bring back Mars materials provide new perspectives. Also other concepts and directions can be investigated use of Rhodium and Platinum or other less known materials like He3, which potentially can be interesting source for energy production in the future. This raises ethical and legal questions which we can't ignore - who is the owner of these materials which we find in space?
Speakers & Presentations
Diego Urbina
Team Lead, Future Projects and Exploration
Dr. Ir. Natalie Leys
Bioengineer & Radiation biologist & Space researcher. Head of Microbiology Research Unit. Coordinator of Space Life Science Research Program. SCK CEN Belgian Nuclear Research Center
Dr. Ir. Natalie Leys will be replaced by Felice Mastroleo
Felice Mastroleo
Senior Researcher SCK.CEN
Prof Bernard Foing
CEO LUNEX EuroMoonMars Earth Space Innovation, Prof Leiden/EPFL, President Space Renaissance International, Vice-chair COSPAR exploration Panel, ex-ESA Chief Scientist & SMART1 Lead scientist
Kevin Madders c/o King’s College London Dickson Poon School of Law
Didier Schmitt
Strategy and coordination group leader for robotic and human exploration – ESA
Space Resources Technology Needs and Systems Overview
Using in situ resources for food, water and oxygen production in space and on other planets
Using in situ resources for food, water and oxygen production in space and on other planets
What are the most valuable lunar and planetary resources, and how to harvest them?
The challenges for space law in view of future missions to Mars
A keystone decade in ESA’s human and robotic exploration
Speakers
Space Resources Technology Needs and Systems Overview
Diego Urbina
Team Lead, Future Projects and Exploration
Diego Urbina is an Electronics Engineer and he works on research and development of technologies for the Exploration of the Moon, Mars, Asteroids, and terrestrial extreme environments at Space Applications Services. Urbina has led for ESA and performed for the EU and PwC/Government of Luxembourg the design of space mining demonstration and prospecting systems and space resources technology scouting. Between 2010 and 2013, he worked for ESA as consultant at ESA ESTEC, was CAVES Engineer at the ESA Astronaut Centre, and researcher at IBMP in Russia, where he served as crew member in the longest spaceflight simulation, Mars500.
Using in situ resources for food, water and oxygen production in space and on other planets
Dr. Ir. Natalie Leys
Bioengineer & Radiation biologist & Space researcher. Head of Microbiology Research Unit. Coordinator of Space Life Science Research Program. SCK CEN Belgian Nuclear Research Center.
Dr. Ir. Natalie Leys, is bio-engineer, radiation biologist and space researcher at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK CEN, where she is heading the Microbiology research unit and coordinating the Space Life Science research program. She investigates the biological impact of ionizing radiation, and the role of microbes, in the human body and medical radiation applications, in nuclear installations and nuclear waste storage facilities, in the soil and environment contaminated with radioactivity, and in cosmic radiation in space missions. She has been active in space research programs for the past 22 years, and is member of the international MELiSSA program consortium, developing the MELiSSA Biological Life Support System for ESA (www.melissafoundation.org). She coordinated and participated in several (inter)national research projects (e.g. www.spacebakery.be) and expert groups (e.g. ESA topical teams) for EC and ESA, conducted 10 microbial space flight experiments on ISS and FOTON, of which 6 as PI, and has several close collaborations with space scientists from Canada, Russia, US, Japan and China. She has mentored many students, authored and co-authored a significant amount of international scientific papers, book chapters, and research reports (h-index 34), and her research has been presented several times in the media. She has been lead author of strategic documents and roadmaps for ESA and EU, guest editor of scientific journals, jury member for Phd evaluations, and reviewer for scientific papers and projects for different agencies.
Using in situ resources for food, water and oxygen production in space and on other planets
Felice Mastroleo
Senior Researcher SCK.CEN
Felice has a background in animal biology from the university of Liège, city where he was born, and he also studied Water treatment at the Luxembourg’s University Foundation. After about 2 years working in the industry, he came back to research at SCK CEN in 2004, with the University of Mons as academic partner. He obtained a PhD in proteomics and microbiology in the frame of the European Space Agency project MELiSSA. Since 2010, Felice is a staff member of the Microbiology group at SCK CEN where he works on different topics focusing on the use of bacteria to improve human conditions on Earth and in Space. This includes the use of bacterial-based food supplement to combat side-effects of radiotherapy as well as low tech application of space technology in a Global South context.
What are the most valuable lunar and planetary resources, and how to harvest them?
Prof Bernard Foing
CEO LUNEX EuroMoonMars Earth Space Innovation, Prof Leiden/EPFL, President Space Renaissance International, Vice-chair COSPAR exploration Panel, ex-ESA Chief Scientist & SMART1 Lead scientist
Prof. Bernard H. Foing, chair of LUNEX, EuroMoonMars & ArtMoonMars manager, executive director of ILEWG, Prof VU Amsterdam, Leiden observatory, ISU and EPFL, former ESA Chief Scientist and chair of ESTEC staff association committee (2012-2017) & SMART-1 Lead scientist. Chair IAF ITACCUS, member IAF committees (TAC, GLEX IPC, space exploration, astronomy, space habitats, traffic management), full member IAA International Academy of Astronautics since 2010, vice-chair COSPAR planetary and PEX Planetary Exploration Panel, co-director IMA International Moonbase Alliance, founder Moon Village & MV Association, EGU space instrumentation officer, president MoonGallery foundation (moongallery.eu). Worked at ESA ESTEC (1989-2020) on leave from CNRS, as ESTEC staff committee chair (2012-2017), senior scientist, advisor to DG, Chief scientist, Head of Research Division, study lead (SIMURIS, MORO lunar orbiter, EuroMoon lander), staff, visiting scientist fellow. Co-Investigator of SOHO, XMM, BIOPAN, SMART-1, Mars Express, COROT, ISS/Expose, ExoMars. Publications: 900 articles, including 225 refereed papers. Academics: Habilitation 1990, CNRS, post-doc astronomer ESO European Southern Observatory Chile, PhD astrophysics & space techniques (CNRS, Lockheed, SacPeak, Boulder, Harvard), Prof agrégé Physics, Ecole Normale Supérieure ENSET Paris-Saclay.
.png)
The challenges for space law in view of future missions to Mars
Kevin Madders
c/o King’s College London Dickson Poon School of Law
Kevin Madders has been active for over three decades in the twin fields of space and digital transformation, as an international civil servant (European Space Agency), an academic, a government and corporate adviser, and a company director and entrepreneur in three countries. He is the author of the first comprehensive work on the European space sector, A New Force at a New Frontier (1997, 2002), which remains a basic reference source, as well as other publications including the chapter “Transnational Space Law” in the Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law (2021). He has been teaching in his current fields for over a decade at KU Leuven and King’s College London, where he is visiting professor. He has practised law at the London and Brussels bars and been research fellow at the Institute for European Studies of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg. He holds bachelors (London), masters (Yale) and doctoral (Cambridge) degrees, is a barrister of Gray Inn and a lifetime elected member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society among other affiliations. Kevin is also managing partner of Systemics Network International.
A keystone decade in ESA’s human and robotic exploration
Didier Schmitt
Strategy and coordination group leader for robotic and human exploration – ESA
The United States and China are clearly embarking on a major rivalry for a presence in the Solar System. The "reconquest" of the Moon is only an intermediate stage, like a base camp before reaching the maintain top. Indeed, the Holy Grail on the horizon, in the 2040s – that is, tomorrow – is to land the first humans on Mars. This outlook and the recent geopolitical turmoil is a powerful reminder that European autonomy and sovereignty in space exploration must be a highlight on the agenda of the ESA Council at ministerial level on 22-23 November 2022.
Chair
Sabri Mekaoui
Sabri is a Programme officer at the European Commission. As an EU diplomat, he is supporting the European Union in the conception of international partnership strategies in the areas of climate change, digitalisation, Space and STI in West Africa. Sabri has been in charge of various space programmes including GOVSATCOM, nanosatellites, space mission concepts, robotic, lunar exploration, ISRU and Earth Observation technologies and services. Sabri has been working at the Royal Meteorological of Belgium in Solar physics where he was in charge of space instrumentation on the space shuttle, the ISS and SOHO. He holds a PhD of Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and a master of space science and techniques from the University of Liège. Sabri is an Alumni of the International Space University (Space Study Programme of 2002).
.png)