Concept for a Crewed Lunar Lander Operating from the Lunar Orbiting Platform-Gateway

摘要

Lockheed Martin is working with NASA on the development of the Lunar Orbiting Platform - Gateway, or Gateway. Positioned in the vicinity of the Moon, the Gateway allows astronauts to demonstrate operations beyond Low Earth Orbit for months at a time. The Gateway is evolvable, flexible, modular, and is a precursor and mission demonstrator directly on the path to Mars. Mars Base Camp is Lockheed Martin's vision for sending humans to Mars. Operations from an orbital base camp will build on a strong foundation of today's technologies and emphasize scientific exploration as mission cornerstones. Key aspects of Mars Base Camp include utilizing liquid oxygen and hydrogen as the basis for a nascent water-based economy and the development of a reusable lander/ascent vehicle. At the core of Mars Base Camp is Orion, a highly capable vehicle with unique features designed for deep space environments and to keep crew members safe. The investments made in Orion can be leveraged to reduce the cost, complexity and development timeline for new crewed vehicles. The Gateway and Mars Base Camp can be designed to utilize the redundancy, performance, and safety built into Orion. Lockheed Martin has a long history of designing, building, and operating planetary landers from Viking to this year's InSight. A mission to study Mars' interior structure, InSight will answer key questions about the early formation of rocky planets. Given the current directives to enable long term deep space exploration, lunar exploration systems including landers should not be point solutions solely for the Moon. Just as the International Space Station is preparing us for long duration human spaceflight, lunar activities can prepare us for Mars. This paper will discuss the overall architecture for lunar exploration missions using precursor versions of the elements of the Mars Base Camp architecture. This includes the conceptual design, concept of operations, Orion derived systems, propulsion system trades, and th