Introducing the Resource Prospector (RP) Mission

Abstract

he Resource Prospector (RP) Mission is an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology demonstration mission under study by NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate’s (HEOMD’s) Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Division. The mission, currently planned to launch in 2019, will demonstrate prospecting for volatiles and extraction of oxygen from lunar regolith as an ISRU demonstration. The mission will utilize the RESOLVE (Regolith & Environment Science and Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction) payload, developed by NASA. RP will address key Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs) for robotic and human exploration to the moon, Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), and ultimately Mars. The concept of ‘strategic knowledge gaps’ for all potential human destinations was developed by HEOMD as a guide for Agency investments including robotic precursor missions and the SKGs were externally vetted and contributed to by all three analysis groups for the three key future human destinations: asteroids (Small Bodies Analysis Group or SBAG), the moon (Lunar Exploration Analysis Group or LEAG), and Mars (the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group or MEPAG), and then vetted by the international space community via the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG).