PhD Opportunity - ISRU

Using Terrestrial Basalts as Analogues for Extra-terrestrial Volcanism; implications for off-world construction & in-situ resource utilisation

Fully funded PhD position at Imperial College London, to start October 2024 for 3.5 years.

Supervisory Team: Dr Natasha Stephen (ESE & GeolSoc, Primary Supervisor); Dr Matthew Genge (ESE, 2nd Supervisor)

Additional Project Partners; Dr Stephen Grimes (University of Plymouth, UK); Dr Helen Brand (ANSTO, Melbourne, Australia); Dr Jennifer Mitchell  (University of Minnesota); Prof James Darling (University of Portsmouth, UK); Oxford Instruments Ltd.

Current international efforts to explore Mars are focussed on Mars Sample Return (MSR); high precision analysis of the sampled materials will provide answers to many of the outstanding questions concerning Mars’ origin & evolutionary history. However, future Mars missions (including landers and rovers proposed within MSR) require ground-truth to assess their viability on Mars’ often inhospitable surface.

In-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) is a key component in the future of human exploration and the establishment of sustainable infrastructure to facilitate the future human exploration of Mars. Various projects funded by NASA with industrial partners are underway to investigate the use of local materials for the ‘off-world construction’ of habitats via 3D printing or additive manufacturing that could be used on airless bodies, and whether regolith (unconsolidated, organic-free material on the surface of extra-terrestrial bodies) can be utilised for this purpose.

This project aims to ground-truth NASA & ESA analogues, alongside the identification & classification of new, terrestrial analogues that could provide a better fit to Mars’ surface geology, enabling new research into the suitability of materials for both scientific investigation and off-world construction for the future of sustainable space exploration. The aim is to determine:

• How well the analogues geochemically match true extra-terrestrial materials.

• A full microstructural characterisation of Martian & analogue materials to establish strength, identify weaknesses, and investigate longevity.

• Whether these materials can be used as is for ISRU on extra-terrestrial surfaces, or whether other considerations need to be made for successful application in 3D printing as described in the literature.

The project contains a combination of field and lab-based study, with both UK and international partners in Australia and the USA. The project is fully funded by the US Naval Research Office and US Air Force.

Informal enquires can be made to project supervisor Natasha Stephen (natasha.stephen@geolsoc.org.uk). More information about the project can be found here, and both the department and planetary science research theme here. Applications are open until a suitable candidate is found.