Abstract Nearly 2,000 feet of continuous core, combined with well log and 3-D seismic data, afford a rare opportunity to document variations of stratal architecture and related processes of shelf-edge, growth faulted deltaic systems through active and inactive periods of growth faults at the scale of 4 th -order sequences in the Frio Formation in Corpus Christi Bay. The growth fault history, examined by expansion ratio and T-Z plots, is divided into three different periods: (1) development (rapid subsidence, growth ratio > 2, steep and positive slope of T-Z plot); (2) less active to inactive (no growth, flat to negative slope of T-Z plot); and (3) maintenance (slow subsidence, growth ratio ~ 1, flat and positive slope of T-Z plot). These periods can be correlated to aggradational, repetitive fourth-order sequences of shoreface deposits, a transgressive unit composed of backstepping shoreface deposits, and several high-frequency progradational fourth-order sequences represented by wave-dominated, fluvial-influenced deltaic deposits. Varying subsidence rates serve as a dominant process in stratigraphic development of the Frio Formation, whereas sediment supply and eustatic sea-level changes are subordinate. The decameter-scale fourth-order sequences within the hanging wall section are grouped into two categories based on stratal architecture: (1) T-R cycles within development period of growth faults and (2) R cycles within maintenance period of growth faults. T-R cycles have complete transgressive and regressive intervals of similar thickness (R-T thickness ratio ~ 1.7), created by a balance between rapid sediment supply and rapid accommodation rate caused by high subsidence rate and low sea-level drop rate. This balance permits the possibility of preserving of both regressive and transgressive units and provides more time for modification of deltaic deposits by wave-storm processes. R cycles are dominated by regressive intervals containing minor transgressive intervals (R-T thickness ratio > 6). R cycles are the results of rapid progradation stacking as rapid sediment supply, slow subsidence and rapid sea-level drop. The reservoir quality of wave-dominated deposits is highly controlled by the percentage of the bioturbated beds that constitute permeability barriers. Within the period of development of growth faults, a high subsidence rate associated with high sediment rate may indicate a relative high energy environment with fewer bioturbated beds and better reservoir quality as documented by porosity and permeability data. Relatively more antithetic faults are present during the growth fault development period, making the interval structurally complex with potentially greater number of reservoir compartments.

Abstract Future success in exploration and human habitation of the solar system will depend on space missions and settlements becoming more self-sustaining through exploitation of extraterrestrial (i.e., local) energy and material resources. For example, the Moon contains a wide variety of energy minerals and other resources that can potentially be used for manufacture of propellants for space transportation, volatiles for manufacture of chemicals, and metals for construction of solar power facilities, industrial plants, and structures for human habitation. If water ice in polar regions on the Moon is proven to exist in large quantities, these resources could not only support human habitation but could also be used to manufacture rocket propellants, reducing dependency on Earth for these resources, thereby making human space exploration more economically viable. Moreover, the lower gravity well of the Moon could be used as a launching site for missions to Mars and other worlds in the solar system, given the possibility of water-ice and other lunar resources. New exploration tools will need to be developed to fully and accurately characterize the potential lunar resource base. For example, detection and quantification of suspected water-ice resource in lunar polar regions in recent missions involve an array of technologies not commonly used in hydrocarbon exploration on Earth, such as synthetic aperture radar, epithermal neutron detectors, and imaging of reflected ultraviolet starlight using Lyman-alpha scattering properties. Optimal locations for potential lunar bases and industrial facilities reflect several factors that include the distribution of water ice, volatiles (nitrogen), nuclear materials (helium-3, thorium, and uranium), and metals (titanium, magnesium, and iron). Other important factors are the duration of insolation (sunlight), where solar power facilities could be constructed in polar areas with constant or near-constant illumination, as well as strategies that involve key orbital positions (Lagrangian points) to maximize fuel resources using less overall delta-v, defined as incremental change in spacecraft velocity to achieve a new orbital configuration.

Abstract The financial, environmental, and national security carrot for helium-3 fusion power requires access to low-cost lunar helium-3. Helium-3 fusion potentially would provide an environmentally benign means of helping to meet an anticipated ninefold or increase in energy demand by 2050. Not available in other than research quantities on Earth, this light isotope of ordinary helium-4 reaches the Moon as a component of the solar wind. Embedded continuously in the lunar dust for billions of years, concentrations have reached levels of potential economic interest. Near the United States Apollo 11 landing site in Mare Tranquillitatis, 2 km 2 (0.8 mi 2), to a depth of 3 m (9.8 ft), contains about 100 kg (220 Ib) of helium-3, that is, more than enough to power a 1000 MWe (1 gigawatt [GW]) fusion power plant for a year. In 2008, the energy equivalent value of helium-3 relative to $2.50/million Btu (0.25 x 10 6 kcal) industrial coal equaled about US $1.4 billion a metric tonne (1.1 tons). One metric tonne (1.1 tons) of helium-3, fused with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen, has enough energy to supply a city of 10 million with a year’s worth of electricity or more than 10 GW of power for that year. The financial envelope within which helium-3 fusion must fit to be of interest to potential investors, as related to other 21st century energy sources, includes total development cost approximately US $15 billion, competitive coal costs US $2.50 or higher/million Btu (0.25 × 10 6 kcal), and payload costs to the Moon approximately US $3000/kg ($1360/Ib).

Abstract Lunar helium-3 is considered one of the potential resources for utilization as a fuel source for future Earth-based nuclear fusion plants. With a potential start-up of a commercial fusion power plant by the year 2050, the author describes technology and commercial aspects for a lunar helium-3 mining operation that could fuel such a power plant. Barriers for development are mostly inferred to exist in the fusion part of the helium-3 value chain. Commercially, a helium-3 operation would have to compete with other energy supply sources that might become available in the future and that could be developed in a stepwise function instead of in an all-encompassing effort. The author suggests that space technology research, development, and demonstration and fusion research should be pursued separately and should only form a symbiosis once a common fit caused by separately achieved scientific and/or technical progress justifies a joint commitment of financial resources. Research, development, and demonstration costs for these programs will be several hundred billion dollars, which will mostly be provided by public investments. The private sector, however, is emerging in space technology and could play a significant function in such a value chain, as outlined in the suggested business model. The author does not suggest such an operation as of yet, but instead that only a high-value resource—such as helium-3—could justify such endeavor. However, even then, other difficult-to-extract resources on Earth, such as gas hydrates, most likely would be preferred as an investment opportunity over a lunar mining development.

Abstract Near–Earth asteroids and comets, collectively the near-Earth objects (NEOs), represent a large population of minor planetary bodies whose orbits lie mostly within the zone between Venus and Mars. Many of these objects cross Earth’s orbit, providing relatively easy access from Earth for manned or robotic sampling and exploration missions with fewer propulsion requirements than trips to the Moon or to Mars. This chapter provides a review of NEOs in the context of supporting, through in-situ resource utilization, an active and expanding space exploration and resource development program capable of becoming self-funding and supporting a solar systemwide expansion program. The NEO compositions range from highly metallic asteroids composed predominantly of iron, nickel, and cobalt to cometlike objects composed of frozen water and gases of various compositions. The NEOs are the most easily accessible objects in near–Earth space, and they are numerous. As of January 2011, a total of 7872 NEOs had been identified. The number of NEOs with diameters greater than 1 km (>0.6 mi) reached 1269 by June 2012. Moreover, 1176 have been identified as potentially hazardous Earth impactors by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Near–Earth Object Program, approaching Earth to within 0.05 astronomical units or approximately 7,480,000 km (4,647,860 mi). The value of NEOs for space exploration may far exceed the immediate scientific information that they provide on the origin of the solar system: NEOs have the potential to provide fuel for rockets; oxygen and life support materials for explorers; valuable materials and metals for construction in space; and critical, strategic, and highly valuable materials for Earth. Water ice derived from extinct NEO comets or water–rich asteroids can be refined to provide liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen for rocket fuel and the oxygen necessary for life support. Carbonaceous chondrites contain kerogenlike compounds that can support the immense carbon chemistry developed for our petroleum industry, and metallic asteroids contain platinum–group and rare–earth elements that have been conservatively valued in the hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars if they were made available in Earth markets. These resources are accessible using existing rockets and boosters, but these existing systems and technologies are nearly 50 years out–of–date. Active space exploration and development programs require highly efficient nuclear rockets and space–based nuclear power systems to reduce launch costs to economically tolerable numbers and to provide the heavy–lift capacity and highly efficient rocket engines for crew health and safety and minimum duration missions. Once flight launches are outside Earth’s atmosphere, the NEOs can provide nearly unlimited resources for further exploration.

Abstract The recent detection of plumes of methane venting into the Martian atmosphere indicates the probable presence of a substantial subsurface hydrocarbon reservoir. Whatever the immediate source of this methane, its production(whether by biogenic or abiogenic process) almost certainly occurred in association with the presence of liquid water in the deep (>5+ km [>3+ mi]) subsurface, where geothermal heating is thought to be sufficient to raise crustal temperatures above the freezing point of water. Indeed, a geologicevidence that the planet once possessed vast reservoirs of subpermafrost groundwater that may persist to the present day exists. If so, then methanegeneration has likely spanned a similar period of time, extending over a considerable part of the geologic history of Mars. As on Earth, the ventingof natural gas on Mars indicates that substantial amounts of gas are likely present, either dissolved in groundwater or as pockets of pore–filling free gas beneath the depth where the pressure–temperature conditions permitthe formation of gas hydrate. Hydrate formation requires the presence of either liquid water or ice. The amount of water on Mars is unknown; however,the present best geologic estimates suggest that the equivalent of a global layer of water 0.5–1 km (0.3–0.6 mi) deep may be stored as ground ice and groundwater beneath the surface. The detection of methane establishes the subsurface of Mars as a hydrocarbon province, at least in the vicinity of the plumes. Hydrocarbon system analysis indicates that methane gas and hydrate deposits may occur in the subsurface to depths ranging from approximately 10 m (~30 ft) to 20 km (10 mi). The shallow methane deposits may constitute a critical potential resource that could make Mars an enabling.stepping stone for the sustainable exploration of the solar system. They provide the basis for constructing facilities and machines from local Martian resources and for making higher energy–density chemical rocket fuels for both return journeys to Earth and for more distant exploration.

Abstract Hydrocarbon reservoirs at Titan come in many forms—as gases and condensates in the atmosphere; as surface accumulations of liquid in lakes, slushy soils, and solid sediments; and in the subsurface, perhaps caged within clathrate hydrates and/or as part of a global hydrocarbon aquifer. Because Titan is so far from the Sun and contains multiple atmospheric haze layers, information on its surface features and their composition is extremely difficult to obtain and is acquired via imaging instruments that operate at wavelengths less affected by the haze. Unfortunately, the data are commonly of low resolution, and divergent interpretations abound. However, with the multinational Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn on its extended Solstice mission, Titan’s surface composition is slowly coming into focus. This review will attempt to synthesize the current state of knowledge of hydrocarbon presence and distribution at Titan, emphasizing those observations that have direct compositional relevance to compounds in the atmosphere and on the surface.

Abstract Any frontier exploration effort transitions eventually to an exploitation phase. Exploitation can be research or economic in nature. In either case, a regulatory framework is required to coordinate and govern any activity in the new realm. The Earth orbital regime has entered the exploitation phase with the advent of a permanent research facility in the form of the International Space Station (ISS) and increasing activity in the private sector. The lunar regime and perhaps near-Earth asteroids will be potentially entering the exploitation phase within the next two decades. A regulatory structure in the form of an international agreement using elements similar to the Antarctic Treaty and the Intergovernmental Agreement for the ISS may be used as an example of a potential regulatory structure for the exploitation of the extraterrestrial environment. Inevitably, economic development will follow the research phase if not specifically prohibited in any future treaties or agreements. To manage these activities, an organization similar to the World Trade Organization could form the basis of a management body for economic activities.

Abstract Earth and our Moon intercept tiny fractions of the high–quality power generated by the Sun. Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, modified by the life of the growing biosphere, moderate the day–night swings of temperature to an average global temperature of 15°C (59°F). Our moderating biosphere enabled humans to evolve to where our industries now consume increasing parts of the ancient (i.e., fossil fuels, high–grade minerals, and others) and modern biosphere (i.e., atmospheric oxygen, clean water, and others) and are significantly degrading the modern atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere to provide us with thermal and electric power and other goods and services. Our ancient terrestrial resources cannot provide us sustainable economic growth and security. Natural sunlight on Earth cannot enable a growing economy. At Earth’s surface, sunlight is unpredictably irregular and requires massive power collection, electric distribution, and power storage to provide somewhat reliable commercial electric power. In contrast, sunlight falls reliably onto the Moon, unimpeded by atmospheric clouds, rain, fog, and dust or life. Very low–mass solar–power collectors constructed on the Moon from lunar soils can convert the collected sunlight into beams of microwave photons that can be directed to receivers on Earth. These receivers can efficiently output low–cost commercial electric power. The beams dependably pass through all atmospheric conditions and can be provided night and day. Electric energy costs can decrease by a factor of 10 or more. This massless electric power enables a growing global economy that is sustainable and clean.

Abstract Once humans landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, the goal of space exploration envisioned by United States President John F. Kennedy in 1961 was already being realized. Achievement of this goal depended on the development of technologies to turn his vision into reality. 0ne technology that was critical to the success of this goal was the harnessing of nuclear power to run these new systems. Nuclear systems provide power for satellite and deep space exploratory missions. In the future, they will provide propulsion for spacecraft and drive planet-based power systems. The maturation of technologies that underlie these systems ran parallel to an evolving rationale regarding the need to explore our own solar system and beyond. Since the Space Race, forward-looking analysis of our situation on Earth reveals that space exploration will one day provide natural resources that will enable further exploration and will provide new sources for our dwindling resources and offset their increasing prices or scarcity on Earth. Mining is anticipated on the Moon for increasingly valuable commodities, such as thorium (Th) and samarium (Sm), and on selected asteroids or other moons as a demonstration of technology at scales never before imagined. In addition, the discovery of helium-3 on the Moon may provide an abundant power source on the Moon and on Earth through nuclear fusion technologies. However, until the physics of fusion is solved, that resource will remain on the shelf and may even be stockpiled on the Moon until needed. It is clear that nuclear power will provide the means necessary to realize these goals while advances in other areas will provide enhanced environmental safeguards in using nuclear power in innovative ways, such as a space elevator or by a ramjet space plane to deliver materials to and from the Earth’s surface and personnel and equipment into space and a space gravity tractor to nudge errant asteroids and other bodies out of collision orbits. Nuclear systems will enable humankind to expand beyond the boundaries of Earth, provide new frontiers for exploration, ensure our protection, and renew critical natural resources while advancing spin-off technology on Earth. During the past ten years, China, Japan, India, and other countries have mounted serious missions to explore the Moon and elsewhere. Recent exploration discoveries by Japan on the Moon may mark the beginning of a new race to the Moon and into space to explore for and develop natural resources, including water (from dark craters to make hydrogen for fuel and oxygen, etc.), nuclear minerals (uranium, thorium, and helium-3), rare-earth minerals, and other industrial commodities needed for use in space and on Earth in the decades ahead.

Abstract This publcation is a comprehensive and integrated review of energy and mineral resources in the Solar System, including materials that can both sustain future manned expeditions and colonies in space and support Earth's energy and critical material challenges in the 21st century and beyond. All long-range programs for human exploration and settlement of the solar system recognize the vital role that extraterrestrial energy and mineral resources must play in support of human habitation of near Earth Space and the Moon, Mars, and the Asteroids. Produced in colaboration with the AAPG Energy Minerals Division and the AAPG Astrogeology Committee, this Memoir reflects AAPG's vision of advancing the science and technology of energy, minerals, and hydrocarbon resources into the future and supporting exploration and development of the ultimate frontier, beyond Earth's atmosphere.