Moon
ESA PROSPECT mission
The Package for Resource Observation and in-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Commercial exploitation and Transportation (PROSPECT) is a payload developed by ESA for application at the lunar surface as part of international lunar exploration missions. Establishing the utilization potential of resources found in-situ on the Moon may be key to enabling sustainable exploration and lunar habitability in the future. The purpose of PROSPECT is to support the identification of potential resources, to assess the utilization potential of those resources at a given location and to provide information to help establish their broader distribution. PROSPECT will also perform investigations into resource extraction methodologies that maybe applied at larger scales in the future and provide data with important implications for fundamental scientific investigations on the Moon.
PROSPECT's drill (ProSEED) will drill beneath the surface in the South Pole region of the Moon and extract samples, expected to contain water ice and other chemicals that can become trapped at the extremely low temperatures expected; typically -150 °C beneath the surface to lower than -200 °C in some areas. Samples taken by the drill will then be passed to a chemical laboratory (ProSPA) where they will be heated to extract these cold-trapped volatiles. Thermochemical processes, at temperatures of up to 1000 °C, can then be used to further extract chemical species, including oxygen. This will test processes that could be applied for resource extraction in the future.
Our group is involved in the analysis of sample extracted by the ProSEED drill, investigating physico-chemical properties of volatiles and water in lunar samples.
