International Workshop on In-Situ Resource Utilization
August 15-17, 2006
Hilton Downtown Garden Inn
Cleveland, Ohio

• Register
• Hotel Reservations: Government Rate at the Cleveland Hilton Garden Inn
• Hotel Reservations: Conference Rate at the Cleveland Hilton Garden Inn
• Final Program

NASA has established a project to develop technologies that will be needed to extract and use the resources native to the surface of the Moon and Mars for producing mission consumables such as propellants, life support air and water, and reactants for chemical power systems.  In-situ production of valuable mission consumables is predicated on perceived savings in mass, cost and risk compared to transporting supplies from Earth.  Based on an extensive effort that included NASA staff and participants from industry, academia and international partners, an In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technology development roadmap was conceived to guide the technology development effort and serve as a framework for including ISRU into evolving mission architectures.  A guiding principal of the ISRU project derived from that roadmap is to maintain effective communications among NASA, academia, industry, other government agencies and potential international partners.  Ongoing communication will ensure that the progress of ISRU technology development and the mission architecture in which it will be implemented continue toward the goals of minimized mass, cost and risk.

The workshop is being organized to assemble interested parties to achieve the following goals:

1. Review NASA ISRU technology development plans to refine its contents, within the scope of the currently planned budget, to reflect the interests of broader participation by industry, academia, other US government agencies and international partners.
2. Review technical work currently supported by NASA and other sources to reduce duplication of effort and to seek optimal “global” technical progress under continuing environments of limited funding.
3. Establish working links between the ISRU technology development effort and parallel development efforts in related areas including propulsion systems that use ISRU produced propellants, power systems that provide power to ISRU systems and/or use ISRU produced reactants, surface mobility systems that provide transportation to ISRU or use ISRU produced fuels, and life-support and related systems that use ISRU produced air, water, etc.
4. Establish an implementation strategy for incorporation of ISRU into future robotic and human exploration missions, including the influence of space commercialization.

The workshop will feature plenary presentations on ISRU and related technology development and science topics, but spend most available time on focused working group sessions.  Working group sessions will provide opportunities for very brief presentations of positions/technical information followed by discussion/debate leading to consensus recommendations for future work in ISRU and the related technologies.  Presentations, summaries of working session discussions, and consensus recommendations will be documented in a published workshop proceedings document.
 
Preliminary working session topics include: Regolith excavation and handling, lunar oxygen production, lunar volatile extraction, ISRU links to related technologies including propulsion, cryogenic fluid storage, power systems, surface mobility systems, life support systems, ISRU links to space commercialization, ISRU links to lunar and planetary science, and more.

Government Rate at the Cleveland Hilton Garden Inn

Conference Rate at the Cleveland Hilton Garden Inn

or by calling the Hilton Garden Inn Cleveland Downtown at 216-658-6400 and asking for the NCSER-ISRU room block.
Reservations must be made by July 21, 2006 to receive the conference rate of $105 non-government and $96 government.

A final program is posted here.

We look forward to your participation in this workshop!