Call for Ideas
Identifying Challenges Along the ISRU Value Chain
Collecting Inputs from the Community
Following the success of the first Space Resources Challenge, ESA & ESRIC launched a new campaign in April 2023, to define themes for future challenges.
To move up the ISRU value chain, ESA encouraged submissions focusing on the following thematic areas:
Outcomes of the Call
The response from the community was fantastic, with 48 ideas qualified for evaluation. These contributions came in from all around the world covering different disciplines, highlighting the many technical challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for ISRU.
The top five that stood out for their innovation, creativity and potential to close key ISRU technology and knowledge gaps were the following:
- In-Situ Self-sufficient Materials Handling
- Permanent watts on the Moon
- In-Situ solidification of regolith for comprehensive dust mitigation on the Moon
- Power usage optimization along the excavation and delivery process
- Subsurface payload deployment and sampling at the minimum Cost of Transport
Using the selected ideas, a strategic roadmap for the Space Resources Challenge was developed with the aim of launching a challenge every three years:
