This paper presents a design proposal for a crew descent/ascent vehicle to deliver crews to lunar/Mars surfaces, return them to lunar/Mars orbits to dock with the trans-Earth return vehicles, and reenter the Earth's atmosphere for a surface landing. The paper also presents a proposed lunar/Mars lander that utilizes a tether system that deploys during the final descent stage to softly place payloads on the surface with minimum rocket blast ejecta which could pose ballistic hazards to nearby facilities. The design approach baselines vehicles and landers that can be placed in LEO using Medium Lift Vehicles (MLVs) (15 MT by 12 ft. diameter payload capacities), and are scalable to utilize larger launchers if available.
Ascent and Earth Reentry Crew Descent Vehicle Concepts for Lunar and Mars Exploration
10th Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments and Second NASA/ARO/ASCE Workshop on Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration ; 2006 ; League City/Houston, Texas, United States
Earth & Space 2006 ; 1-7
02.03.2006
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Planets , Mars , Spacecraft , Space construction , Moon , Space exploration
Ascent and Earth Reeentry Crew Descent Vehicle Concepts for Lunar and Mars Exploration
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