Northern Ontario firm lands contract to develop device for mining on moon, Mars

A northern Ontario company is being awarded a Canadian Space Agency contract to work on a multi-purpose device that's designed for future mining on the moon and Mars.

Deltion Innovations Ltd. of Capreol, Ont., in Greater Sudbury will develop the combination drill and rotary multi-use tool, which it describes as a space-age Swiss Army knife.

The device, which would be installed on the end of a robotic arm, is designed to drill into rock and other materials to capture a variety of samples. 

It would also be used in robotic construction, maintenance and repair tasks. The drill weighs about 20 kilograms and it will run on solar power.

The company's website states the equipment is being developed for the Lunar Resource Prospector Mission scheduled for 2018.

Deltion CEO Dale Boucher said in a news release the project continues his company's "unique heritage" of space mining technology developments.

The awarding of the $700,000 contract is to be officially announced at a news conference in Capreol this afternoon and Deltion is subcontracting with two other Ontario firms — Neptec Design Group of Kanata and Atlas Copco of North Bay.

Sudbury MP Paul Lefebvre said the contract will increase Canada's capabilities in the rapidly-emerging field of space mining.

The project, part of the CSA's space technology development program, has been given the acronym PROMPT, for Percussive and Rotary Multi-Purpose Tool.

The contract has been in the works for a while, but is officially being announced today.

What's being mined in space?

In a CBC News story published in 2014, Boucher said the prospecting tool will look for water and ice near the south pole of the moon.

"Water is kind of the 'ore of choice' for space mining right now," he said.

"Water can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen using a very simple solar cell system. So, if you break it into hydrogen and oxygen you have a couple of things: you have oxygen to breathe, you have hydrogen and oxygen which is the most powerful rocket propellant that we know of."

Boucher said if water can be mined on the moon, it can be used for space missions.

For example, he said if one litre of water was to be sent to the international space station from earth, it would cost about $10,000 to get it there.

The solution to save on costs? Using water from the moon instead, he said.

"You now have an ability to refuel much smaller rockets. It costs you less to go to Mars … to go to asteroids," he said.