Dr. van Susante grew up in The Netherlands. He graduated with a M.S. in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology in 2001 with a thesis topic of building large telescopes in the permanently shaded lunar polar craters. He did his internship at the European Space Agency in Noordwijk (ESTEC), The Netherlands, and led his award winning senior design team with a lunar base design for lunar He 3 surface mining. In 2002 he started at the Colorado School of Mines at the invitation of Mike Duke to continue lunar telescope work and received a MSc in Engineering Systems in 2004. Since 2003 he has been involved with in-situ Resource Utilization studies and hardware development and testing, he led the development of a first prototype of a lunar bucket ladder, backhoe and performed regolith simulant property testing for RESOLVE. He was faculty advisor for 5 student teMemberType.MS participating in the centennial excavation challenge and lunabotics mining competition from 2008-2012 and now a 6 th team at MTU. In 2010 he was a National Space Grant Faculty Fellow at NASA Kennedy Space Center working on lunar landing pad construction methods and testing. His PhD from CSM in 2011 included modeling of lunar regolith excavation forces. He has worked on numerous SBIR/STTR/NIAC and other grants with numerous aerospace companies and NASA centers on ISRU related research, Lunar and Martian economics and architecture studies. After 7 years as a senior lecturer, he is now an assistant professor at MTU and perfoMemberType.MS research in the areas of In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for space exploration and surface operations on the Moon, Mars and Asteroids. His Planetary Surface Technology Development Lab includes simulation, prototype development and test facilities. His research group and Mining Innovation Enterprise perform research in collaboration with several companies for several funded multi-year NASA grants such as extracting water from gypsum rock and buried glaciers on Mars and water extraction from ice in permanently shadowed craters on the Moon. Other aspects of the research include study and prototyping and testing robotic Systems for excavation and construction for infrastructure placement such as trenching, roads, landing pads, bulk material movement and beneficiation of source material.
Projects
NASA LuSTR 2020The PSTDL was a recipient of a 2020 NASA’s Lunar Surface Technology Research grant (LuSTR20) for the development of a lunar prospecting instrument known as the Percussive Hot Cone Penetrometer (PHCP) in combination with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). The goal of this project is to produce a science instrument that is capable of probing the lunar surface up to a depth of 1 meter to extract the geotechnical properties of the lunar regolith, identifying the vertical and lateral concentrations of volatiles present.
NASA LuSTR 2021This project is working on a NASA’s 2021 Lunar Surface Technology Research grant (LuSTR 21) led by Colorado school of Mines and other partners. The overall project is to build an autonomous site prep rover capable of obstacle removal, leveling, and compaction. The PSTDL is working on a novel compaction system for this system.
NASA T-REXNASA Breakthrough Innovative and Gamechanging (BIG) Idea Challenge 2020 – "Tethered permanently shaded Region EXplorer (T-REX)", (power and communication delivery into PSR)
NASA Watts on the MoonNASA Watts on the Moon Centennial Challenge (Providing power to water extraction plant in PSR 3km from power plant) – "Wired Watts where-ever, whenever you want – W^5"
NASA Break the IceNASA’s Break The Ice Lunar Challenge challenges teams to create a solution for mining lunar permafrost. The PSTDL’s Prototype Regolith In-situ Mining Rover with Onboard Surface Excavator (PRIMROSE) is a highly capable mining rover purpose-built to meet the demands of this challenge. PRIMROSE leverages proven terrestrial technology and the PSTDL’s experience with regolith excavation. Future work includes testing excavation of icy regolith in a cold chamber using the PRIMROSE excavator.
NASA ESIEarly Stage Innovation (water from rock gypsum on Mars) – "Low mass, low power, non-mechanical excavation of gypsum and other evaporites for water production on Mars"
NASA RedWaterNASA NextSTEP BAA ISRU track 3 (water from buried glaciers on Mars) – "RedWater : Extraction of Water from Mars' Ice Deposits" (subcontract from Honeybee Robotics who are principal investigator)
NASA GCD MREProvides a regolith feeder and transportation system for the MRE reactor
NASA CLASSNASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) – "CLASS (Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science)" (subcontract from University of Central Florida who are principal investigator)
Facilities
Dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber (DTVAC)Perform rapid testing of lunar surface systems and science instruments. This facility consists of a thermal vacuum chamber, removable regolith beds, and supporting equipment.
Lunar Simulant SandboxLarge 'Airlocked' lunar simulant chamber with autonomous gravity offloading.
IRGOA 3-axis autonomous gravity offloading device located within a lunar simulant chamber.
Mini Thermal Vacuum Chamber (MTVAC)A Martian pressure rated vacuum chamber featuring a LN2 feedthrough port to allow tests to be conducted at cryogenic temperatures.
HOPLITEA modular robotic system that enables the field testing of ISRU technologies.
PRIMROSEThe PSTDL’s Prototype Regolith In-situ Mining Rover with Onboard Surface Excavator (PRIMROSE) is a highly capable mining rover purpose-built to meet the demands of the NASA Break the Ice Centennial Challenge. PRIMROSE leverages proven terrestrial technology and the PSTDL’s experience with regolith excavation.
Regolith Freezing & Heating ContainersShipping containers refurbished as regolith heating and freezing facilities.
DREDGEDynamic Response Evaluation for Development of Geotechnical Equipment (DREDGE).
Industrial Robotic ArmA programmable FANUC robotic arm.