A GATEWAY SUPPLY MISSION SCENARIO AND FLIGHT PLAN WITH UPGRADED H3 AND HTV-X

摘要

The lunar orbital platform Gateway is led to be constructed by NASA in 2020s as the staging point for crewed and robotic lunar exploration. MHI is considering how to realize the mission with own techniques, such as supplying cargos with upgraded HTV-X launched by H3. Both H3 and HTV-X are currently being developed. H3 is based on the heritage of H-IIA/H-IIB. HTV-X is an advanced version of H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). For Gateway, H3 and HTV-X are studied to be further advanced. Compared with the injection to ISS's low earth orbit, higher delta-v is needed for the injection to transfer orbit to Gateway. MHI is planning to contribute Gateway supply mission step by step. The first target is to bring cargo with 2 launches of H3. The second target is to upgrade booster stage of H3. LRB is developed to increase launch capability of H3. HTV-X can be injected to WSB with 1 launch of H3. In the future lunar surface mission, the upgraded booster stage of H3 contributes to launch heavy cargo to lunar surface. And, MHI intends to integrate 2nd stage of H3 and the landing vehicle to optimize transfer capability to the Moon. We call the integrated vehicle as TRAINE (inTegRated jApan orIginal mooN Express). This paper reports the study of mission scenario and upgraded H3 and HTV-X for Gateway supply mission and future lunar surface mission.