A Low-thrust Transportation Architecture to Transfer Crews and Cargo Between Earth and Mars Orbits

摘要

The feasibility of conducting a human Mars mission is considered, assuming no heavy lift launch vehicle is available and minimal crew flight times are required. Propulsion options are evaluated and extrapolated, and an architecture is defined. A low-thrust cargo vehicle deploys Mars surface cargo, and also establishes propellant depots in orbit around Earth and Mars. Subsequently, a low-thrust crew vehicle departs, carrying insufficient propellant for the complete mission but obtaining additional propellant from the depots. Although the architecture enables one-way crew flight times of approximately 100 days, and does not require heavy lift, its complexity calls into question the practicality of such a mission.