A new crew Mars architecture has been developed that provides many potential benefits for NASA-led human Mars moons and surface missions beginning in the 2030s or 2040s. By using both chemical and electric propulsion systems where they are most beneficial and maintaining as much orbital energy as possible, the Hybrid spaceship that carries crew round trip to Mars is pre-integrated before launch and can be delivered to orbit by a single launch. After check-out on the way to cis-lunar space, it is refueled and can travel round trip to Mars in less than 1100 days, with a minimum of 300 days in Mars vicinity (opportunity dependent). The entire spaceship is recaptured into cis-lunar space and can be reused. The spaceship consists of a habitat for 4 crew attached to the Hybrid propulsion stage which uses long duration electric and chemical in-space propulsion technologies that are in use today. The hybrid architecture's con-ops has no in-space assembly of the crew transfer vehicle and requires only rendezvous of crew in a highly elliptical Earth orbit for arrival at and departure from the spaceship. The crew transfer vehicle does not travel to Mars so it only needs be able to last in space for weeks and re-enter at lunar velocities. The spaceship can be refueled and resupplied for multiple trips to Mars (every other opportunity). The hybrid propulsion stage for crewed transits can also be utilized for cargo delivery to Mars every other opportunity in a reusable manner to pre-deploy infrastructure required for Mars vicinity operations. Finally, the Hybrid architecture provides evolution options for mitigating key long-duration space exploration risks, including crew microgravity and radiation exposure.
[1]
D. R. Komar,et al.
An initial comparison of selected Earth departure options for solar electric propulsion missions
,
2012,
2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference.
[2]
Robert D. Falck,et al.
A Flexible Path for Human and Robotic Space Exploration
,
2010
.
[3]
Kandyce Goodliff,et al.
Cis-Lunar Base Camp
,
2012
.
[4]
Jon A. Sims,et al.
Preliminary Design of Low-Thrust Interplanetary Missions
,
1997
.
[5]
Matthew A. Vavrina,et al.
Implementation of a Low-Thrust Trajectory Optimization Algorithm for Preliminary Design
,
2006
.
[6]
Matthew A. Vavrina,et al.
Interplanetary Trajectory Design for the Asteroid Robotic Redirect Mission Alternate Approach Trade Study
,
2014
.
[7]
Nathan J. Strange,et al.
Human Missions to Phobos and Deimos Using Combined Chemical and Solar Electric Propulsion
,
2011
.
[8]
David Smitherman,et al.
Design and Parametric Sizing of Deep Space Habitats Supporting NASA'S Human Space Flight Architecture Team
,
2012
.
[9]
Jeffrey S. Parker,et al.
Targeting Low-Energy Ballistic Lunar Transfers
,
2011
.
[10]
Nathan J. Strange,et al.
Using Gravity Assists in the Earth-moon System as a Gateway to the Solar System
,
2012
.
[11]
Steven R. Oleson,et al.
A Combined Solar Electric and Storable Chemical Propulsion Vehicle for Piloted Mars Missions
,
2014
.
[12]
Damon Landau,et al.
Method for Parking-Orbit Reorientation for Human Missions to Mars
,
2005
.