NASA is preparing to return humans to the lunar surface as a first step to a human exploration campaign of Mars. Both a sustained lunar campaign and a campaign of missions to Mars will require tens to hundreds of tonnes of propellant. Although this propellant could be delivered from Earth, an alternative approach is to use the potentially vast quantities of lunar ice to enable in-situ propellant production on the lunar surface. This study evaluates the cost breakeven for using lunar-derived propellants, as opposed to those delivered from Earth, in support of an extended human exploration campaign with both a multi-year presence on the Moon as well as multiple crewed missions to Mars. In so doing, the value of lunar propellant production is considered in the context of future exploration priorities, addressing the question: over what range of human missions to the lunar surface and Mars does in-situ propellant production trade favorably with propellant delivery from Earth on the basis of cost? The results of this analysis show that the magnitude and duration of the lunar campaign, more so than the Mars campaign, drive the breakeven and that without long lifetime ISRU systems, with greater than 5 years of autonomous operation before replacement, the demand in cis-lunar space for a Mars campaign favors propellant delivery from Earth.


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    Titel :

    Cost Breakeven Analysis of Lunar In-Situ Propellant Production for Human Missions to the Moon and Mars


    Beteiligte:
    Christopher A Jones (Autor:in) / Alejandro R Pensado (Autor:in) / Matteo A Clark (Autor:in) / Melanie L Grande (Autor:in) / Marie L Ivanco (Autor:in) / Emily L Judd (Autor:in) / Jordan J Klovstad (Autor:in) / David M Reeves (Autor:in)

    Kongress:

    AIAA ASCEND 2020 ; 2020 ; Virtual, US


    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Konferenz)


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch




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    Jones, Christopher A. / Pensado, Alejandro R. / Clark, Matteo et al. | AIAA | 2020


    COST BREAKEVEN ANALYSIS OF LUNAR IN-SITU PROPELLANT PRODUCTION FOR HUMAN MISSIONS TO THE MOON AND MARS

    Jones, Christopher A. / Pensado, Alejandro R. / Clark, Matteo et al. | TIBKAT | 2020


    Cost Breakeven Analysis of Lunar In-Situ Propellant Production for Human Missions to the Moon and Mars

    Christopher A. Jones / Alejandro Pensado / Matteo Clark et al. | NTRS


    Cost Breakeven Analysis of Cis-lunar ISRU for Propellant

    Jones, Christopher A. / Klovstad, Jordan / Judd, Emily et al. | AIAA | 2019