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Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) consists of a number of tasks starting with mining of lunar regolith, followed by the transfer of regolith to an oxygen extraction reactor and finally processing the regolith and storing of extracted oxygen. The transfer of regolith from the regolith hopper at the ground level to an oxygen extraction reactor many feet above the surface could be accomplished in different ways, including using a mechanical auger, bucket ladder system or a pneumatic system. The latter system is commonly used on earth when moving granular materials since it offers high reliability and simplicity of operation. In this paper, we describe a pneumatic regolith feed system, delivering feedstock to a Carbothermal reactor and lessons learned from deploying the system during the 2010 ISRU field campaign on the Mauna Kea, Hawaii. I. IntroductionIn-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) refers to mining and processing of local resources, such as regolith or waterice found on extra-terrestrial bodies in support of human and to some extent also robotic surface operations' z, 3, a The major premise for ISRU is cost reduction associated with not having to haul supplies and consumables to an extraterrestrial body, but instead producing them in-situ. For example the historical cost of placing lkg on the surface of the Moon is of the order of $50,000 to $100,000. Thus, a processing plant weighing for example l Okg and delivering IOOkg of consumables over its life, will save 90kg in mass and up to $9M in cost. Lunar ISRU is also being considered as an enabling technology for human and robotic exploration of Mars and beyond. In particular, oxygen produced from lunar regolith could be used as an oxidizer for the propulsion systems and sent to a refueling station in earth orbit or to the Lagrange points. Mars bound spacecrafts could thus re-fuel before proceeding to the red planet. With launch costs to LEO at -$10-20K/kg this approach could also offer substantial savings.ISRU consists of a number of steps that include 1) mining of a resource (e.g. regolith), 2) moving it to a processing plant, 3) pre-processing the resource (e.g. crushing, sieving or pre-heating), 4) moving the feedstock

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