Earth and Space 2022 Abstracts

The Conference provides an excellent opportunity for sharing knowledge through presentations. The conference plans to accept submittals only for oral presentations. Please refer to the schedule presented below for information relating to important dates for submittal and review process.

Abstract Procedure

An abstract of each presentation must be submitted for review and acceptance. Upon acceptance of an abstract, a draft manuscript will be required. The draft manuscript will be reviewed and may be determined to require additional editing and/or modification prior to submission of a final paper.

Abstracts…

  • shall be submitted as plain text from within the Document Management Website (see below for more information);
  • shall not exceed 500 words;
  • shall not contain images, graphs, tables, or any other content that is not plain text;
  • do not require a particular structure or appearance

Please see the Submittal of Documents section below for instructions for submitting initial abstract files.

Student Paper Competition

The Earth and Space Conference is pleased to announce a Student Paper Competition. The Competition is open to any student first author of a 2022 Earth and Space Conference contribution. Students whose abstracts have been accepted by the Conference will be considered for this paper competition.

In order to be considered, students must:

  • Be a student at the time of submission and be the principal (i.e. first) author of the paper.
  • Submit an abstract to be considered for oral presentation in the Conference (in any of the Conference Symposia).
  • In the abstract submission process, indicate that the paper should be included in the Student Paper Competition .

Finalists for the competition will be selected based on the quality of the initial paper manuscripts submitted.  Finalists will be invited to present their work in a special session of the Conference in front of a panel of judges.  The winner will be recognized at the Conference Awards event.

The conference committee recognizes that COVID casts significant uncertainties over travel for an in-person conference in April 2022.  At this time, we intend to proceed forward with an in-person conference and will consider a remote or pre-recorded paper presentation option for those unable to travel. We are monitoring the COVID situation and will modify the conference plans if national, state, or city restrictions prevent an in-person conference.

We encourage authors to submit abstracts despite these uncertainties and will work with authors to find the best option for them considering the COVID situation as we near the conference date.

Abstracts must be submitted no later than September 12, 2021.

Submittal of Documents

All abstracts shall be submitted to the Conference staff through the Conference Document Management Website whose address is shown below.

https://mines.eventsair.com/22me1151a/presentations

To submit your document, click/tap the link above or click/tap the button below.

Persons wanting to submit documents for the Conference should visit the website listed above and create an account. Those who create an account for use in submitting an initial abstract must use that account’s credentials to access the website for subsequent submittals. DO NOT create more than one account on the website; a submitter must use the same website account for all submittals.

While it is not required that the person submitting documents is an author of the documents, all communication from the Conference staff concerning a document will be directed to the person who submits the document (the account holder). If the submitter/account holder is not also an author, it is the responsibility of the submitter to forward such correspondence to at least one author of the document.

For questions about document submission or for help with the Document Management Website, please contact the Conference staff at Learn@mines.edu.

Attendance of Conference

At least one author of each accepted presentation must register for and attend the Conference and must present the information covered by the abstracts at the Conference in accordance with the applicable presentation schedule.

Symposium Tracks/Topics

Presentations in the following areas are invited:

Symposium 1 – Granular Materials in Space Exploration

Chair: Phil Metzger, University of Central Florida

This symposium will focus on the science and engineering of granular materials in space exploration. When we visit a planetary body, we land on granular materials, drive on them, dig in them, extract resources from them, build with them, and study them for science. Because granular materials can rearrange on a mesoscopic scale, their emergent behaviors are difficult to predict and are the subject of intensive research by physicists, engineers, geologists, and other disciplines. Research includes experiments, computer modeling, and collection of data from planetary missions. Technologies are being developed to study granular materials on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and beyond. Sessions in this symposium will focus on lunar regolith and dust, asteroid regolith, soil mechanics, granular flow, rocket exhaust interactions with regolith, and anything that requires or supports our understanding of granular materials in space.

Session Topics:

  • The Physics of Regolith: Mechanics, Heat, and Volatiles
  • Regolith Simulants
  • Instruments and Methods to Measure Regolith Mechanics
  • Modeling Methods for Regolith
  • Rocket Exhaust Interactions with Regolith
  • Trafficability of Regolith: Designing Rovers to Not Get Stuck
  • Particulate Processes under Low Gravity Environments Granular Mechanics

Symposium 2 – Exploration and Utilization of Extra-Terrestrial Bodies

Co-chairs: Rob Mueller, NASA Kennedy Space Center; Kris Zacny, Honeybee Robotics

This symposium will focus on methodologies, techniques, instruments, concepts, missions and system level designs associated with exploration and utilization of Solar System bodies, with emphasis on the Moon, Mars, Ocean Worlds, and Asteroids. The topic covers both robotic and human exploration. Many of the various types of civil, geological, mining, chemical and materials engineering fields are needed to sustain space exploration and space commercialization. The topic also covers legal and ethical aspects of space exploration and space mining.
Standard practices will have to be adapted, and new practices will have to be developed, to be able to rely on the natural resources of near-Earth asteroids, the Moon, and Mars to sustain human and robotic activities in space. Engineering systems and economics concepts, as well as mechanical, robotic, and structural engineering solutions are needed as well. While there is always room for robust and innovative new concepts, the testing, refining, and more testing of previously proposed concepts are especially sought.

Session Topics:

  • Robotic Mobility in Extreme Terrain
  • Drilling and Sample Handling
  • Space mining
  • In Situ Resource Utilization
  • Instruments and Sensors
  • Resource Prospecting
  • Mission Concepts
  • Space habitats and structures

Symposium 3 – Advanced Materials and Designs for Aerospace and Terrestrial Structures under Extreme Environments

Co-Chairs: Nick Zhou, University of Tennessee; An Chen; Arif Masud, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

New techniques in experimental, computational, and analytical mechanics are expanding the understanding of the behavior of composite, smart, and other materials with applications to aerospace structures and other terrestrial structures under extreme environmental conditions. Exciting combinations of fundamental studies and practical applications by government and industry are expanding the design and analysis capabilities for aerospace structures as well as terrestrial structures to be used in extreme environments. Recent advances and studies on materials and structures as well as their design aspects in terrestrial aviation and space applications and related structures are particularly solicited.

Session Topics:

  • Ballistic Impact and Crashworthiness of Aerospace Structures
  • Energy Efficient Structures and Habitats
  • Advanced and Alternative Cementitious Materials
  • Composite materials for Aerospace
  • Advanced Numerical Methods for Additive Manufacturing

Symposium 4 – Structures in Challenging Environments: Dynamics, Controls, Smart Structures, Health Monitoring and Sensors

Co-Chairs: Wei Zang, University of Connecticut; Shi Yan, Gangbing Song, University of Houston

The technical areas of dynamics, controls, and evaluation and condition monitoring of engineering structures and systems, specially designed and built to operate in challenging environments on Earth and in space, are of extreme importance. Integration of sensors into structural and material systems enables more effective and precisely tuned performance, as well as remote evaluation and control of space and terrestrial structures systems. The design and analysis of structures in challenging environments on any planetary body need special care beyond current terrestrial practice. Space environments – on planetary surfaces or in orbit – expose systems to radiation, micro/reduced gravity, vacuum, debris/meteoroid impact, and temperature extremes. Overcoming these significant challenges is imperative to the success of any structure in space and in extreme and challenging environments on Earth. In addition, educators face challenges in using emerging technology to improve the education of the engineers of the future.

Session Topics:

  • Tensegrity – Concepts and Applications in Challenging Environments
  • Structures under Extreme Environments: Theory and Applications
  • Specialized Sensors-based Structural Damage Detection and Health Monitoring
  • Advanced Concepts on Renewable and Green Energy Harvesting

Symposium 5 – Space Engineering, Construction, and Architecture for Moon, Mars, and Beyond

Co-Chairs: Ramesh B. Malla, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT; Melissa Sampson, Ball Aerospace, Boulder, CO; Alexander Jablonski, P.Eng, Canadian Space Agency, Ottawa, Canada; and Gerald (Jerry) B. Sanders, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

There have been increased activities and interests in space activities, especially lunar and Martian exploration by the public and private sectors alike. Many national and international agencies and space industry are currently involved in the planned lunar missions. The United States Space Policy Directive 1 directs NASA to focus on lunar exploration with a new human return to the Moon and then crewed/human missions to Mars. These efforts will involve both robotic and human missions. The recent landing of the Chinese lunar surface probe Chang’e-4 on the far side of the Moon has opened up a new chapter in lunar exploration with plans by several space actors for humans to follow in the late 2020’s.

As the world’s space community prepares to return to the Moon with humans, this time to stay, explore and then settle elsewhere in the Solar System on a long term basis, it is imperative that we continue to support the development of qualified engineering, construction and architecture concepts and guidance for these developments. On Earth, multiple new spaceports have been constructed with modernized methods and operations, providing new insights into enhanced operational efficiencies, This symposium deals with innovative concepts, methods, designs, research, development, and applications related to all aspects of human space exploration, architecture, engineering and construction, including facilities in orbit and on planetary surfaces such as the Moon, Mars, moons of Mars and asteroids, as well as terrestrial spaceports.

Session Topics:

  • Innovative Engineering and Construction on the Moon and Mars Utilizing and Harnessing Indigenous Geo-Environmental Resources
  • Technical Requirements for Lunar Systems
  • Tensegrity Structural Systems for Moon and Mars Space Applications
  • Architecture on the Moon and Mars: Designing for Human Space Exploration
  • Structural morphology for space structures on the Moon, Mars and other extreme environments
  • Lunar and Martian Habitats: Design Considerations and Construction Challenges
  • Inflatable Structures: Habitable Applications for Space and Planetary Environments
  • Strategies for Achieving Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitats
  • Innovative Construction Techniques for Lunar and Martian Environments
  • Robotics Development for Lunar and Martian Constructions
  • 3D Printing Applications for Lunar and Martian Construction
  • Building Information Modeling (BIM): digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of space facilities
  • Terrestrial Spaceports: New Construction Projects and lessons learned