For a piloted mission to Mars, fueling up on the moon could streamline cargo by 68 percent
Launching humans to Mars may not require a full tank of gas: A new MIT study suggests that a Martian mission may lighten its launch load considerably by refueling on the moon.
Previous studies have suggested that lunar soil and water ice in certain craters of the moon may be mined and converted to fuel. Assuming that such technologies are established at the time of a mission to Mars, the MIT group has found that taking a detour to the moon to refuel would reduce the mass of a mission upon launch by 68 percent.
The group developed a model to determine the best route to Mars, assuming the availability of resources and fuel-generating infrastructure on the moon. Based on their calculations, they determined the optimal route to Mars, in order to minimize the mass that would have to be launched from Earth — often a major cost driver in space exploration missions.
They found the most mass-efficient path involves launching a crew from Earth with just enough fuel to get into orbit around the Earth. A fuel-producing plant on the surface of the moon would then launch tankers of fuel into space, where they would enter gravitational orbit. The tankers would eventually be picked up by the Mars-bound crew, which would then head to a nearby fueling station to gas up before ultimately heading to Mars.
Olivier de Weck, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of engineering systems at MIT, says the plan deviates from NASA’s more direct “carry-along” route.
“This is completely against the established common wisdom of how to go to Mars, which is a straight shot to Mars, carry everything with you,” de Weck says. “The idea of taking a detour into the lunar system … it’s very unintuitive. But from an optimal network and big-picture view, this could be very affordable in the long term, because you don’t have to ship everything from Earth.”
The results, which are based on the PhD thesis of Takuto Ishimatsu, now a postdoc at MIT, are published in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.
A faraway strategy
In the past, space exploration programs have adopted two main strategies in supplying mission crews with resources: a carry-along approach, where all vehicles and resources travel with the crew at all times — as on the Apollo missions to the moon — and a “resupply strategy,” in which resources are replenished regularly, such as by spaceflights to the International Space Station.
However, as humans explore beyond Earth’s orbit, such strategies may not be sustainable, as de Weck and Ishimatsu write: “As budgets are constrained and destinations are far away from home, a well-planned logistics strategy becomes imperative.”
The team proposes that missions to Mars and other distant destinations may benefit from a supply strategy that hinges on “in-situ resource utilization” — the idea that resources such as fuel, and provisions such as water and oxygen, may be produced and collected along the route of space exploration. Materials produced in space would replace those that would otherwise be transported from Earth.
For example, water ice — which could potentially be mined and processed into rocket fuel — has been found on both Mars and the moon.
“There’s a pretty high degree of confidence that these resources are available,” de Weck says. “Assuming you can extract these resources, what do you do with it? Almost nobody has looked at that question.”
Read more: To save on weight, a detour to the moon is the best route to Mars
The Latest on: Mars
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Mars” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Mars
- Massive sunspot that brought widespread auroras to Earth now targets Marson May 17, 2024 at 1:00 pm
After quite the aurora experience across Earth this past weekend, beastly sunspot AR3664 could give Mars quite the same solar spectacular.
- NASA to help with the launch of Europe’s unlucky Mars roveron May 17, 2024 at 10:34 am
Europe's unlucky Mars rover, known as Rosalind Franklin, has gotten a boost thanks to a new cooperation agreement with NASA.The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox ...
- Romy Mars Makes Her Cannes Debuton May 17, 2024 at 7:22 am
Last year, Romy Mars Croquet —the daughter of filmmaker Sofia Coppola and musician Thomas Mars—went viral, with a video explaining how she was grounded after trying to charter a helicopter to visit ...
- Mars might have an asteroid problemon May 17, 2024 at 5:19 am
Of particular interest is our neighbor planet, Mars, as we plan to send humans there in the coming decades. A new research paper accepted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ...
- NASA and ESA complete agreement for cooperation on Mars rover missionon May 17, 2024 at 3:09 am
NASA and ESA have completed an agreement under which NASA will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of support for a European Mars rover mission.
- NASA's Mars sample return mission is in trouble. Could a single SLS megarocket be the answer?on May 17, 2024 at 3:00 am
NASA could get Mars samples back to Earth with a single launch of the Space Launch System rocket, Boeing says.
- NASA, ESA will search for 'signs of life' on Marson May 16, 2024 at 7:59 pm
NASA and the European Space Agency will search together for signs of life on Mars, the U.S. space administration announced Thursday.
- Mars-Bethel Golf offers new ‘out-of-this-world’ attractionon May 16, 2024 at 7:55 pm
There a few things in this galaxy that are truly meant to be together, such as peanut butter and jelly, Romeo and Juliet, and road construction and Route 228. For Joe Vivirito, owner and ...
- KS3/4 Computing: The Mars Rover and autonomous navigationon May 16, 2024 at 11:33 am
ExoMars Rover Engineer Abbie Hutty, from Airbus Defence and Space, explains how the Mars Rover uses 3D cameras to create a map of the Mars landscape.
- Mars Snacking Invests in Sustainable Dairy Productionon May 16, 2024 at 6:29 am
The new proposition will work to reduce the carbon footprint of dairy in line with the company's 2030 ambition to slash emissions by 50%.
via Bing News