Special Issue on In Situ Resource Utilization

摘要

This special issue on in situ resource utilization (ISRU) was borne from the reality that in order for humanity to evolve into a spacefaring civilization, it will need to be able to gather, process, and use materials at the site where explorations are made and settlements are planted. This ability to wean ourselves from Earth is critical, and it will be coupled to automated devices and robots. Astronauts are now our construction workers in space and will likely be so when we return to the Moon and go to Mars, but the severe environments make reliance on humans for building our space civilization not feasible. The guest editors would like to express their gratitude to all the authors for their contributions and for graciously proceeding through the review process. The reviewers are likewise appreciated for the time-consuming effort of studying the submitted manuscripts and then providing very useful feedback to the authors who can improve their manuscripts. We acknowledge Sheila Pearson, who is the editorial assistant and technical writer in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Akron, where our journal editor, Professor Wieslaw Binienda, is a member of the faculty. Sheila was at the core of our organization and on more than one occasion saved a manuscript from the oblivion of the refereeing maze. Wieslaw encouraged us to organize this special issue and has helpedwith the refereeing process. Clearly this special issue is a product of the efforts of many people. We thank you all. What follows is a brief summary of the papers in this special issue.