In July 2023, three College of the Desert professors and one student researcher received the exciting news that NASA had chosen their project to be funded with a $900,000 M-STAR grant.
The team of Ahmed Elshafie (associate professor of physics and astronomy), Amira Elsenousy (professor of astronomy), Michael Gariety (assistant professor of physics and astronomy) and student researcher David Jackson created the proposal, “A Penetrolyzer for Extracting Oxygen and Hydrogen From Mars Regolith.”
In a recent media release, the COD professors explained the purpose of their project.
“This grant will contribute to our future human exploration of planet Mars in the 2030s,” said Elshafie.
“Extracting oxygen and hydrogen from the surface of Mars will be a challenge,” said Elsenousy.
“Hydrogen will be utilized (by travelers to Mars) as fuel, and oxygen will be used for breathing,” said Gariety.
The research began in earnest in September 2023, and will continue through the three-year term of the grant, which expires in August 2026.
“We’re three months into our award,” Gariety told the Independent in a recent interview. “We’ve purchased the equipment that we need. We hired six student researchers, and we’re starting to do experiments. The ball is rolling quickly. We’re getting good results. We’re getting good design. We’re still in the first quarter of the timeline of the grant, but we’re progressing nicely according to our goals.”
The ultimate goal is to prove that pure oxygen and hydrogen can be extracted in large-enough quantities to provide life support during exploration (and maybe inhabitation) of Mars.
“The most challenging part is that no one has done this before,” Elshafie said. “So there is no literature survey that we can use to help us in our experimental work. That’s why we have to try everything ourselves, and to replicate everything ourselves. In terms of the experimental setup itself, you cannot go out and buy it from any industrial partners. You have to 3-D design (it). You have to 3-D print, and you do trial and error, and you make your own design that’s going to fit your needs to meet your goals and objectives. That’s where we are right now. We’ve passed multiple design phases in order to do the setup for our experimental work, and we now have confidence in our setup and our data.”
The magnitude of the opportunity to partner on a research project with NASA is not lost on any of the participants.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for community college students to be involved in this Ph.D.-level research,” Gariety said. Only one other community college in the nation received grant funding under this NASA research program, while seven grants went to major state university systems.
David “Jack” Jackson, the student researcher, is savoring the opportunity.
“One of the things I think is awesome about this project is that it allows me to perform real-world research that’s actually going into a larger, grander scheme,” Jackson said during our interview. “You know, there are a lot of internships that allow you to practice your skills, but usually at the end of the internship, that’s pretty much it. You walk away with the experience you had, that you practiced, but what does that translate to? This project is going (to contribute) to the development of mankind, and for the future missions to Mars by NASA, which is a very impressive thing. It’s humbling that we even get that opportunity at the community college level. It’s thanks to professors like professor Gariety, Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Amira Elsenousy, who are working really hard on these projects. I don’t know if they get paid much extra for it, but I’m just very thankful that they’re here to help us out.”
This isn’t the first collaboration between COD and NASA. The community college submitted a proposal to NASA back in 2018 which was also funded.
“It focused on developing a course in one of the NASA areas of space technology,” Elshafie said. “We selected ‘Entry, Descent and Landing’ (as our topic) specifically because of my experience being part of different space missions, such as the landing of the Philae lander (probe) as part of the Rosetta mission. We landed (it) on Comet 67P back in 2014. That led to other experiences in my Ph.D. work where I was part of investigating the mechanical properties of different planetary bodies.”
For the current project, the COD team will be designing and building from scratch a prototype of the “penetrolyzer” machine that would penetrate the Martian surface to gather brine-rich soil, from which the oxygen and hydrogen molecules would be collected.
“The oxygen and hydrogen that we’re producing from the Martian surface is in water,” Gariety said. “In small amounts in the sub-surface of Mars—we’re talking the first half-foot to a foot—there are brines. There’s salty water six inches down on Mars.”
Added Elshafie: “Those kinds of brines, which are mainly salty material, have the ability to combine with liquid water, basically. We have Dr. Amira Elsenousy working with us. … She is the expert in the chemistry part (of the project), and she is the expert on the brine and the chemistry of Mars.”
The penetrolyzer, when completed, will become the model tool to access the brines containing the desired chemical elements.
“This kind of opportunity is unique, and it’s here in the valley. You don’t have to be in a high-ranking university system like Stanford or others in order to pursue some grade-A research aligned with NASA.”
Ahmed Elshafie, associate professor of physics and astronomy at College of the desert
“As that prototype is going to be delivered to NASA, it needs to meet certain credentials and a certain technology readiness level,” Elshafie said. “… To do that means we’re going to test our instrument in an environmental chamber that simulates the environmental conditions on Mars (in terms of) pressure and temperature. It’ll be a real-life testing. After that, we deliver it to NASA.”
The group of student researchers is performing the necessary, sometimes mundane and always repetitive monitoring tasks that make up the foundation of the research. In addition to Jackson, the group includes Cody Frank, Miguel Rodriguez, Xitlaly Lopez-Arcos, Jazmin Chavez and Ezequiel Rodriguez. Their responsibilities include setting up equipment, recording data, monitoring anomalies in results, doing computer-aided designs, manufacturing those designs on 3-D printers, building the electrical circuits, writing the software to integrate to those circuits, collecting the data from those circuits, and mixing brine samples. The six student researchers—all of whom are paid for their efforts out of the grant funds—welcome the challenges and understand the need for patience.
“I think what surprises me most about the project is just how iterative it is, how much is unknown, and how much is trial and error,” said student researcher Cody Frank. “We’re gradually encroaching on a better understanding, but everything is sort of unique and its own little problem. It’s not as generalizable as I initially thought it was.”
Added student researcher Miguel Rodriguez: “What’s impressed me the most is Professor Gariety’s and Elshafie’s drive to figure out what’s going on. For my part, I was very confused as to why the oxygen saturation level is acting the way it is, but we kept going, and now we’re understanding a little more.”
The professors hope the project sends the message that local students have more to gain from enrolling at the College of the Desert than one might expect at a typical community college.
“We need to widen (people’s perception) and feature what the College of the Desert is capable of,” Elshafie said. “This kind of opportunity is unique, and it’s here in the valley. You don’t have to be in a high-ranking university system like Stanford or others in order to pursue some grade-A research aligned with NASA.”
Added Gariety: “We have established now, going back almost six or seven years, a successful working relationship directly between NASA and the College of the Desert. If more high school and junior high school students knew about that, they could see that there are opportunities right here in the desert, and they don’t have to leave to the big colleges. … We have a nice working relationship with NASA. They’re impressed with us, and we’re impressed with them. It’s very successful.”
Finally, there’s one more benefit that appeals to the student researchers.
“As part of the grant, two students per summer will be selected to go on a 10-week internship at NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Pasadena,” Gariety said. “It’s really exciting for the students to get that kind of experience at the community college level.”