Architecting Space Systems for the Moon, Mars, and Beyond
Getting a NASA-level experience as an undergraduate
A Rascals Story
As a reader of The Overview, I assume that, in the broadest sense, you're likely an aspiring or current aerospace engineer. I also assume that a statement like “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved space” resonates with you. National posture and scientific advancement aside, inspiration is often the fundamental answer to why we got involved in this industry. Whether you’re harnessing wires, folding spacecraft, or working to eliminate compute bottlenecks, I’d venture to guess that a big part of why you do what you do and study what you study is because we all share a common vision: Space is really, really cool.
So, we agree on this vision, but who is steering the ship? Is it your boss? Did NASA pop into your mind? What about ESA, CNSA, ISRO, JAXA, or Roscosmos? It’s difficult, if not impossible, to pinpoint a single visionary behind space exploration. In reality, there are many ships, each with a small group at the helm designing the framework that most engineers work to fill in. Without this structure, our shared vision would not have manifested into the legendary space programs of the past and present, and the future of spaceflight would grind to a halt. Usually reserved for engineers with decades of experience, I was lucky enough to test drive one of the largest ships, NASA, and work amongst such a group architecting missions for deep space exploration.
Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage
or RASC-AL for short, is a university-level systems design competition for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Like student rocketry and other design competitions, RASC-AL allows students to see what engineering looks like outside of class. Unlike most student projects, however, is the focus on architecting entire missions — although recently, RASC-AL has also started to encourage prototyping. Basically, RASC-AL is NASA giving the new generation of Aerospace Engineers, who bring a fresh perspective to the table, a chance to steer the ship for NASA’s multibillion-dollar missions of the future. Oh, and we get to present our work on Cocoa Beach near KSC (Kennedy Space Center) to an elite set of judges from NASA and industry.
For some context, I joined the Illinois Space Society RASC-AL team at the recommendation of a friend during my sophomore year at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (I-L-L!). Four new themes (and corresponding RFPs) are announced annually for universities to choose from. In 2021, the theme we responded to was the low mass 30-day lunar habitat, and the year culminated in the team’s selection as one of 16 finalists in a pool of 60+ proposals with our design: The Localized Initial Lunar Architecture Complex (LILAC). Although I only contributed to a small piece of the project, I immediately fell in love with creating revolutionary ideas for future space systems. The coolest part? Our design conformed to similar requirements imposed by the Artemis Foundational Habitat before that habitat even entered public discourse — i.e., NASA was tapping into our ideas to improve, or at the very least, validate their systems approach… Let me reframe that: RASC-AL is designing the systems that are ten or twenty years out, meaning our vision used to steer LILAC was a test run that informed NASA’s decision-making for the real deal!
The Mars Ice Thermal Harvesting Rig & ISRU Laboratory
Or MITHRIL for short, is an end-to-end in-situ water-based propellant refinery on Mars — and also happens to have saved Frodo’s life. If you thought designing a Moon hab was cool, RASC-AL 2022 stepped it up a notch by requesting a design for a Mars Water-Based ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) Architecture to fuel future Mars systems — think a Martian Starship gas station. After paddling my sophomore year, I became the team lead in my junior year, when we proposed MITHRIL. Aside from a few key system requirements from NASA, the onus was on us to figure out what this system looked like in waters that very few have tried to navigate.
Our compass was a set of trade studies. Using the water extraction system as an example, we had to first choose where to get our water from, what architecture we’d use to extract it, and what variants of that architecture are available in the trade space. With limitless options, thorough research was the only way to narrow down our candidates. Even after sifting through hundreds of papers, the novelty of the problem still required qualitative gut checks, something a set of undergraduate students like us didn’t have the experience to do reliably. Although the point behind RASC-AL is to give us newbies a swing at formulating these architectures, there is something to be said about getting the advice of those who have thought about the problem much longer and much harder. To go from rowboat to sailboat, we enlisted the help of academic advisors, NASA advisors, and industry advisors. We now had some experienced guts to check our decision-making, boosting the credibility of our design.
Circling back to the actual system, we settled on an architecture centered around a Rodriguez well, or Rodwell, to collect water. In short, a Rodwell is water well in a glacier. A borehole is drilled to an adequate depth and heat is delivered to melt the ice. This technique has been used for decades in polar regions on Earth, a relevant analog that boosts the technology readiness level of the system for application on Mars. And in case you were wondering, Mars has plenty of water to go around. Although ice is most accessible at the poles, low visibility due to seasonal carbon dioxide sublimation and long periods of darkness renders polar architecture unattractive. Fortunately, remote sensing has revealed massive glaciers under the Martian regolith across the mid-latitudes closer to the equator throughout regions that are more viable for Mars missions. Although it may seem obvious now, it took months of rigorous trade study to confidently select Rodwells, and, in the end, one final gut check from our advisors (especially from Honeybee Robotics) before we committed to this system.
Water extraction was only half the battle, we also had to figure out how we were going to turn that water into propellant, how to store the propellant, set-up the architecture, power the architecture, and communicate with the architecture. As with Rodwells, each selection came down to a trade study. Do we go nuclear or solar? How do we move things around? How big do our storage tanks need to be? How do we cram this all into a single Starship? Capturing each intricate detail within a trade space is impossible, so we make assumptions to narrow it down and use our best judgment to make tough decisions where data is lacking. Over time, as systems and subsystems were defined, the vision of what MITHRIL needed to look like came into focus, all thanks to a robust process of research, trade study, and advisor guidance…
…and the people. Although not unique to just RASC-AL, as this remains true for any team, the people make or break the project. You can have the fanciest trade studies and sagest of mentors, but without people you can rely on, it doesn’t matter how well you steer the ship. Each year since, I look back on the MITHRIL team and pinch myself: A majority freshman team going up against upperclassmen and graduate students at a NASA design competition. We were eclipsed in every category except passion and grit, and we proved those two traits can carry you to success. Punching well above our weight, we took home 2nd place overall, the first podium spot for an Illinois team ever, and got published at AIAA Ascend; but those accolades pale in comparison to what really gives me pride: my team. What I would rather put on my resume is that two of my subteam leads went on to become RASC-AL leads — one of which also become the ISS Technical Director — and another went on to kickstart Illinois’ Human Landing System Challenge (HuLC) team, winning 2nd place just last week. Not to mention the incredible internships they’ve all been landing since. I have a habit of getting sappy when reminiscing about how awesome they are and how proud I am of them, and this last paragraph is a bit of a tangent, so I’ll end with this: people come first.
MORROW and THEIA
Speaking of two of my sub-team leads, they went on to lead MORROW (Mars Outpost Regenerative Resource Operations Workshop) and THEIA (Trans-lunar Hub for Exploration, ISRU, and Advancement) projects in response to the Mars Homesteading and Sustained Lunar Evolution RASC-AL themes respectively. Burnt out from MITHRIL and suffering a case of Senioritis, I advised MORROW in a limited capacity. The Mars Homesteading theme called for an architecture in between a short surface stay and larger Mars “city”, something NASA has yet not studied thoroughly. THEIA brought us back to the Moon, exploring what the lunar marketplace might look like and how it should sustainably evolve. I also served as an advisor for this team, and lucky for me, I got to fly down to Cocoa Beach again to watch them present.
Why should you get involved?
In just four years, I’ve been a part of, or at least advising, projects for a Moon habitat, Mars propellant refinery, Mars habitat, and Lunar architecture project. I have also now met NASA officials going all the way up to Chief Technologist, as well as leads, chief engineers, and CEOs from the likes of Northrop Grumman, Honeybee Robotics, Spaceworks, Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and more. There is almost no other way to get experience like this outside of RASC-AL during undergraduate, and even graduate studies. When you do it right, this is a chief engineer and program management level endeavor— which I can confirm from firsthand experience in the industry. On top of that, if you’re the type of person who is curious about what we’re going to do when we get to the Moon or Mars, RASC-AL can scratch that itch for you.
How to get involved?
Assuming you’re already a college student at a U.S. university, there are no barriers to entry to compete. So long as you have a professor from your university to sign off on your work, you could participate solo if you wanted. For those who may not be studying engineering and still love space, don’t fret, RASC-AL also has a place for you. Business, economics, law, medicine…you name it, it could probably fit in. There is only one real limitation to your success: you! My friend who got me into RASC-AL initially said it best: “you get out what you put in”.
End? No, the journey doesn’t end here
…but the article does. Whether you read for fun, information, or advice, I appreciate your time and attention. RASC-AL has been great to me, and spreading the word about it is one of many ways I hope to give back. If even 1% of you are curious to hear more, please feel free to reach out via LinkedIn; I’ll talk your ear off.
Thank you 😊
Alec Auster