Effective Utilization of Resources and Infrastructure for a Spaceport Network Architecture

摘要

Providing routine, affordable access to a variety of orbital and deep space destinations requires an intricate network of ground, orbital, and planetary surface spaceports located across the Earth (land and sea), in various Earth orbits, and on other extra-terrestrial surfaces. Advancements in technology and international collaboration are necessary to enable such a spaceport network to satisfy private and government customers' research, exploration, and commercial objectives. Technologies, interfaces, assembly techniques, and protocols must be adapted to enable critical capabilities and interoperability throughout the spaceport network. The conceptual space mission architecture must address the full range of required spaceport services, such as managing propellants for a variety of spacecraft. In order to accomplish affordability and sustainabiliry goals, the network architecture must consider deriving propellants from in-situ planetary resources to the maximum extent possible. Water on the Moon and Mars, Mars' atmospheric CO_2, and O_2 extracted from Lunar regolith are examples of in-situ resources that could be used to generate propellants for various spacecraft, orbital stages and trajectories, and the commodities to support habitation and human operations at these destinations. The ability to use in-space fuel depots containing in-situ derived propellants would drastically reduce the mass required to launch long-duration or deep space missions from Earth's gravity well. Advances in transformative technologies and common capabilities, interfaces, umbilicals, commodities, protocols, and agreements will facilitate a cost-effective, safe, reliable infrastructure for a versatile network of Earth and extraterrestrial spaceports. Defining a common infrastructure on Earth, planetary surfaces, and in space, as well as deriving propellants from in-situ planetary resources to construct in-space propellant depots to serve the spaceport network, will lower exploration costs.