RETURN FUEL PRODUCTION

The Economics of Return Fuel Production from Mars

The Economics of Return Fuel Production from Mars

Introduction

The future of Mars exploration is demanding from multiple points of view. To enhance their science return, future surface probes will most expected be equipped with complex Sample Preparation and Transfer (SPAT) facilities. Future rovers will need to be able to perform longer traverses and dainty experiment acquisition operations. Mars return missions would advantage from a new propulsion system, with superior fuel and ride time efficiencies than chemical and electrical propulsions, respectively. Amodel was created that optimizes SPAT facilities in terms of productivity and system mass. The SPAT model especially investigates two trades-offs: shared versus specific preparation, and warm versus cold redundancy for SPAT elements. AMars Surface Exploration (MSE) contextual was composed to help designers conduct draft studies on rover mission s. MSE concerns multidisciplinary conceive optimization methods for the analysis of conceive trade-offs applicable to the rover conceive community. The Propellant output in Mars Orbit (PPIMO) is offered as a undertaking solution for accomplishing come back travels to Mars. PPIMO uses the concept of regenerative aero braking to produce fuel in-situ. The SPAT form displays that warm redundancy advances productivity by both reducing risk and eliminating experiment throughput bottlenecks. Amethod is presented for determining the economy of scale the shared preparation architecture must exhibit for it to be competitive compared to the circulated architecture. MSE is used to budget the future development costs of rover autonomy, in supplement to considering: the benefits of oversized suspensions, the practicality of solar versus atomic power for future missions, and the benefits of multi-rover missions. (Cunio 2007)

Discussion and Analysis

In 1997, the NASA Mars Pathfinder mission successfully delivered a lander and a rover on Mars' surface. The mission was mainly driven by engineering motives; it demonstrated that the use of airbags is an appropriate landing method, and that rovers are suited for the exploration of Mars' surface. The Mars Exploration Rovers arrived on the planet in January 2004 with more scientific ambition. (Cunio 2007) The next generation of rover is the Mars Science Laboratory which will be launched in 2009. For the design of each new mission, new trade-offs arise. The fundamental engineering design questions are: which capabilities of the system should be improved and how these improvements should be practically realized? For example, the Mars Science Laboratory is the first Mars rover mission to consider the use of nuclear power as opposed to the traditional use of solar power. (Griffin 2004)

Several key aspects of the design and performance of Mars rover missions are actually driven by the relative positions between the Sun, Earth and Mars. Three of these aspects are introduced in this paragraph to illustrate the challenges of rover mission design. First, the celestial positions of the bodies impacts the schedule of missions to Mars. Indeed, celestial mechanics dictate the traveling time of a journey to Mars. (Griffin 2004) Following a Hohmann transfer, a spacecraft cruises for at least six ...