Carole McLemore

Marshall Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Carole McLemore is a NASA engineer and researcher whose work has fundamentally shaped the field of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) — the practice of harvesting and processing local planetary resources to support deep space exploration. Her most influential contribution, "NASA In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Project: Development and Implementation" (2008), has garnered 57 citations and laid critical groundwork for how humanity might sustainably establish a presence on the Moon by leveraging local materials rather than relying solely on Earth-supplied resources. This vision builds meaningfully on lessons learned from both the Apollo missions and International Space Station operations. McLemore's expertise extends into strategic technology planning, as demonstrated by her involvement in NASA's Technology Area 07 Human Exploration Destination Systems Roadmap (2011), which helped define the agency's long-term technology priorities for human exploration destinations. Her broader portfolio reflects a consistent focus on making space exploration more affordable and sustainable through careful systems engineering and resource planning. As humanity's ambitions turn once again toward the Moon and eventually Mars, McLemore's pioneering work on ISRU remains essential reading for researchers and engineers working at the frontier of space exploration infrastructure.