Honesty • Honour • Courage • Commitment

Towards Open, Direct Democracy

Ethical • Sustainable • Zero‑Waste ISRU Space Industry

Overby Industries is building the sustainable backbone of humanity’s future in space.
Our focus is on ethical, zero‑waste in‑situ resource utilization (ISRU) to power the next century of exploration and construction.

• 🛰 Metals from asteroids (nickel, iron, PGMs).
• 🪨 Concrete & composites from regolith & silicates.
• 🌑 Hydrocarbons from Titan for plastics & fuel.
• ♻️ Every process, zero debris, zero waste.

We aren’t just mining rocks. We’re designing the industrial ecosystem to move human civilization beyond Earth, responsibly.

• Ethics First – No exploitation, no orbital junk, no shortcuts.
• Openly Collaborative – Code, automation logic, and systems are developed in the open.
• Multi‑path Contributions – Everyone can help, whether through 💳 funds, 💻 code, or 🧠 knowledge.
• Fail‑Safe Engineering – Robust control systems, redundancy, resiliency.

This project is more than technology. It’s a movement.

This review compares Overby Industries’ vision against real scientific studies and space agency research.

• Overby Concept: Mining rigs anchored to asteroids with expandable containment bags to capture debris.
• NASA Parallel: The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) studied “bagging” small asteroids as a containment and capture technology.
  • Conclusion: ✅ Supported. Tested concept; logical application for zero-pollution mining.

• Overby Concept: Dual-mode ion thrusters (space + atmospheric ABEP) and MHD-Lorentz drives powered by solar wind capture.
• NASA/ESA R&D:
  • Ion propulsion (NASA’s Dawn mission) already proven for deep space.
  • Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) has been tested at ESA for harvesting residual atmosphere in LEO.
  • Magnetosail / Electric Sail concepts (Janhunen, Pekka 2006; NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC)) propose using solar wind particles for thrust and power.
    • Conclusion: ✅ Strongly supported, expanding on existing experimental propulsion concepts.

flowchart TD
    A[Solar Wind Capture] --> P[Plasma Channel]
    B[Ionic Liquid Tank] --> P
    P -->|Ion Flow| C[MHD Reactor Core]
    C -->|Induced Current| D[Graphene Supercapacitors]
    D -->|Discharge| E[Dual Mode Ion Thruster]
    P -->|Lorentz Acceleration| E
    E --> THRUST[ΔV Thrust Out]

    C -->|Power| Payload[Onboard Systems]

flowchart LR

subgraph Generator_Mode [MHD Generator Mode]
    A[Inflow Plasma / Ionic Liquid] --> B{MHD Channel}
    B -->|Induces Current| C[Electrodes & Coils]
    C --> D[Graphene Supercapacitors]
    C --> E[Aluminum-Ion Tanks]
    D -->|Power| F[Payload Systems]
    E -->|Storage| F
end

subgraph Thruster_Mode [Lorentz Thrust Mode]
    A2[Inflow Plasma / Ionic Liquid] --> B2{MHD Channel}
    B2 -->|Lorentz Force Accelerates| C2[Plasma Exhaust]
    C2 --> D2[Reaction: ΔV Forward Thrust]
end

F -->|Discharge| B2

The Overby propulsion core operates as a dual‑function magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) channel in which a conductive working medium—either plasma generated from captured solar wind ions or vaporized ionic‑liquids—is > accelerated through a strong magnetic field. According to Faraday’s law, motion of charged particles through the orthogonal magnetic field induces current picked up across electrodes, enabling electricity harvesting. By adjusting electrode polarities and coil geometries, the same Lorentz force that resists charge motion in generator mode can be flipped to accelerate plasma out of the channel, producing thrust. > Thus the MHD stage is both a generator and an accelerator: in generator mode it extracts current from ionized flow to charge graphene supercapacitors and aluminum‑ion battery tanks; in thruster mode it dumps stored current back across the coils to push the ions to high exhaust velocity. This architecture effectively couples power generation and propulsion into a single loop, allowing “endless trickle” capture from > solar wind plus burst‑mode thrust for maneuvers.

• Overby Concept: Ionic liquids used for batteries, propellant, and thermal shielding.
• Scientific Basis:
  • Ionic liquids are a well-studied class of electrolytes: nonvolatile, flame-resistant, high thermal stability (used in molten salt reactors, flow batteries).
  • NASA has studied Ionic Liquid Ion Sources (ILIS) for micro-propulsion.
  • Thermal buffering with molten salts is already used in concentrated solar power → credible dual-use function in spacecraft.
    • Conclusion: ✅ Supported; multifunctional use of ionic liquids matches current R&D directions.

• Overby Concept: Metals from M-class asteroids, silicates for concrete/ceramics, Titan hydrocarbons for plastics and polymers.
• NASA/ESA Studies:
  • 16 Psyche Mission (NASA, 2022+): Exploring metallic asteroid composition directly.
  • Lunar regolith concretes studied since Apollo → sulfur and geopolymer concretes both proven.
  • Basalt fiber reinforcement also studied from Lunar/Martian regolith.
  • Titan hydrocarbons: Cassini mission confirmed seas of methane/ethane on Titan’s surface → plausible large-scale extraction.
    • Conclusion: ✅ Supported; each ISRU resource stream already validated by data and early experiments.

flowchart LR
    A[Asteroid Regolith] -->|Aluminum, Silicates| B[Aluminum Extraction]
    B -->|w/ Chlorine or Halides| C[Aluminum Chloride Precursors]
    D[Titan Hydrocarbons / Organics] --> E[Organic Base Precursors]
    E --> F[Ionic Cations]
    C --> G[Mixing & Electrochemistry]
    F --> G
    G --> H[Reconditioned Ionic Liquid Tanks]
    
    H -->|Propellant Feed| Thruster[MHD Channel / Electrospray]
    H -->|Thermal Buffer| Reentry[Re‑Entry Thermal Sink]
    H -->|Battery Medium| Energy[Al‑Ion Battery Storage]

• Overby Concept: Starlifter II → reusable powered flight shuttle / deep space transport with integrated power / propulsion unit.
• Engineering Parallels:
  • Space Shuttle Orbiter already demonstrated runway-capable reentry.
  • Modern concepts (e.g. Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spaceplane) continue that line.
    • Conclusion: ✅ Supported; ambitious but evolutionary from proven designs.

Overby Industries’ concepts are scientifically sound and align with decades of NASA, ESA, and academic space R&D. While execution will demand major engineering breakthroughs and investment, the core principles (dustless asteroid mining, ion/Lorentz propulsion, ionic liquid energy storage, ISRU concretes, Titan hydrocarbons) are credible and based on real research.

This vision isn’t just “sci-fi” — it is a carefully reasoned integration of existing aerospace, chemistry, and ISRU research into a scalable economic model. If achieved, it represents one of humanity’s best chances for:

• Removing destructive industry from Earth.
• Building sustainable space habitats.
• Creating a zero-waste interplanetary economy.

Here’s the digital “shipyard” of Overby Industries:

• power-and-propulsion
  Dual-mode ion thrusters (ionic-liquids or solar-wind: space + ABEP: atmospheric) and MHD-Lorentz drives also powered by solar wind capture or ionic-liquids.

• starlifter-os
  Custom distributed operating system for fleets (miners, satellites, Starlifters).

• miner-automation
  PLC + automation systems for drills, crushers, containment bags, refinery pods.

• space-reclamation
  Overby Industries sets the Space Zero-Waste Standard:

  • Dustless containment bags for all surface mining → no uncontrolled debris.
  • Reclamation mode built into every miner pod.
  • Closed-loop processing: every waste stream becomes shielding, aggregate, or other secondary use.
  • Transparency: operations certified by an “Overby Sustainability Code” available for public view.
    • Overby will prove that industry and ecological stewardship can coexist — even in space.

• satnav-swarm
  Autonomous satellite navigation system for cislunar and asteroid belt operations.

• outpost-core
  Systems software for surface outposts and repair depots.

• whitepapers
  The living Overby White Paper, roadmaps, and scientific references.

• overby-industries-pwa
  Next.js + Tailwind public site (with starfield 🌌, donations, updates, contributors portal).

• design-studies
  Diagrams, CAD, and high‑level architecture visualizations.

(More to come: propulsion experiments, Titan ISRU proofs, etc.)

Whether you bring 💳 funding, 💻 code, or 🧠 expertise — there’s a place for you here.

• Donate through the Overby Landing Site.
• Every dollar fuels infrastructure and open-source R&D.

• Explore the repos above.
• Look for issues tagged good first issue for easy on‑ramps.
• Open PRs, ask in Discussions, and help prototype the OS, miners, and swarm logic.

• Are you an engineer, automation expert, PLC programmer, orbital mechanic, or space ethicist?
• Email us at founder@overbyindustries.space
• Join discussions, share knowledge, shape the roadmap.

• 2030: Prototypes → dustless mining demo on a Near-Earth Asteroid.
• 2032: Operational Starlifter II fleet → lunar support depot online.
• 2034: Expansion to asteroid belt → orbital construction with ISRU UHPC concrete.
• 2036: Titan hydrocarbon base → plastics, fuels economy.
• 2040: Full solar system closed‑loop infrastructure.

• Website: overbyindustries.space
• GitHub Org: github.com/Overby-Industries
• Email: founder@overbyindustries.space
• (Optional) Discord/Matrix: coming soon…

All code, designs, and studies default to open source (per repo license file).
White Paper & branding © Overby Industries.

"We’re not strip-mining the sky.
We’re building a sustainable, open, interplanetary economy." 🌌