Motivated by the aggressive timeline of NASA’s Artemis Program, the feasibility of evolving a mid-sized, reusable and refuelable cargo lunar lander technology demonstrator into the descent element of the three- stage human lander was assessed with the goal of forming synergies between both acquisition programs. Requirements for such a concept are that it must be deployed on commercial launch vehicles that are expected to enter into service consistent with Artemis’ timeline. In order to assess this concept’s feasibility, a physics-based analysis of alternatives was conducted where mission and vehicle architectures are traded side-by-side. Mission trades considered include the impacts of traveling to near-rectilinear halo orbit quickly versus slowly; vehicle trades include fuel and oxidizer tank configurations, number of engines, and propellant combinations, as well as several technology options, e.g. reduced and zero boil-off strategies. Results and discussions are presented to facilitate the consideration of this concept. lunar lander, systems analysis, multidisciplinary design and analysis, space systems, analysis of alternatives,
A Conceptual Design Study for an Unmanned, Reusable Cargo Lunar Lander
International Astronautical Congress (IAC) ; 2019 ; Washington, DC, United States
2019-10-21
Conference paper
No indication
English
Self-unloading, unmanned, reusable lunar lander project
NTRS | 1991
|Self-Unloading, Unmanned, Reusable Lunar Lander Project
NTIS | 1991
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