Mars Atmospheric In Situ Resource Utilization Projects at the Kennedy Space Center
The atmosphere of Mars, which is approximately 95% carbon dioxide (CO2), is a rich resource for the human exploration of the red planet, primarily by the production of rocket propellants and oxygen for life support. Three recent projects led by NASA's Kennedy Space Center have be
Selection note: Curated because this 2016 conference paper from Kennedy Space Center specifically covers “Mars Atmospheric In Situ Resource Utilization Projects at the Kennedy Space Center”; its abstract describes The atmosphere of Mars, which is approximately 95% carbon dioxide (CO2), is a rich resource for the human exploration of the red planet, primarily by the production of… This materially informs GShips manufacturing and ISRU.
Evidence boundary: NTRS lists open full text, but this pass assessed catalog metadata and abstract rather than independently validating the document. Inclusion is contextual discovery support, not automatic evidence for a GShips claim.
Stable record
ntrs-20160005187
Topic
manufacturing-isru
Type
Conference Paper
Publisher
Kennedy Space Center
Authors
Muscatello, A. C.; Hintze, P. E.; Caraccio, A. J.; Bayliss, J. A.; Karr, L. J.; Paley, M. S.; Marone, M. J.; Gibson, T. L.
Year
2016
Editorial state
metadata curated editorial draft
Reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Official link checked
2026-07-25
Source-supplied abstract
The atmosphere of Mars, which is approximately 95% carbon dioxide (CO2), is a rich resource for the human exploration of the red planet, primarily by the production of rocket propellants and oxygen for life support. Three recent projects led by NASA's Kennedy Space Center have been investigating the processing of CO2. The first project successfully demonstrated the Mars Atmospheric Processing Module (APM), which freezes CO2 with cryocoolers and combines sublimated CO2 with hydrogen to make methane and water. The second project absorbs CO2 with Ionic Liquids and electrolyzes it with water to make methane and oxygen, but with limited success so far. A third project plans to recover up to 100% of the oxygen in spacecraft respiratory CO2. A combination of the Reverse Water Gas Shift reaction and the Boudouard reaction eventually fill the reactor up with carbon, stopping the process. A system to continuously remove and collect carbon is under construction.
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GShips Project
Editorial status
metadata-curated-editorial-draft
Editorial reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
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pending
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Last content edit
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Official source or link verified
2026-07-25
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The maintainer intends to explore a commercial venture based on some GShips work. No entity, outside funding, customer, sponsor, or indexed-organization relationship currently exists.