Building Evolutionary Growth Into Early Human Exploration Architectures

摘要

Analysis of transportation architectures supporting human lunar exploration and development was conducted to identify those with best safety indicators, lowest cost to initial return to the Moon, and best evolution potential to reach goals of sustainability and affordability. Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR), L1 libration point rendezvous (L1R) and direct profiles, and variations were investigated and evaluated according to abort capability. Evolution scenarios were constructed, including configuration constraints, and 3D solid model concept designs created. Results were: (1) The direct profile for lunar transportation offers greater mission safety and lower initial development cost, at a modest cost of increased mass; (2) The recurring cost penalty for increased mass of the direct mode can be eliminated by evolution to in-situ oxygen production. An alternate path is evolution to a SEP-assisted architecture operating in a rendezvous profile; (3) Potential for mass reduction through lunar basing of the lander/ascent vehicle is great enough to enable a single-launch lunar mission with a moderately uprated ELV. This could reduce cost enough to make a lunar base affordable without highly reusable Earth-to-orbit transportation; (4) These evolutions are practical without major redesign of system elements; and (5) Evolution to Mars missions derives significant heritage from the lunar architecture.