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Trade Study of Five In-Situ Propellant Production System for a Mars Sample Return MissionOne of the goals of NASA''s HEDS enterprise is to establish a long-term human presence on Mars at a fraction of the cost of employing today''s technology. The most direct method of reducing mission cost is to reduce the launch mass of the spacecraft. If the propellants for the return phase of the mission are produced on Mars, the total spacecraft mass could be reduced significantly. An interim goal is a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which is proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of in-situ propellant production (ISPP). Five candidate ISPP systems for producing two fuels and oxygen from the Martian atmosphere are considered in this design trade-off study:(1) Zirconia cell with methanol synthesis, (2) Reverse water gas shift (RWGS) with water electrolysis and methanol synthesis, (3) Sabatier process for methane production with water electrolysis, (4) Sabatier process with water electrolysis and partial methane pyrolysis, and (5) Sabatier/RWGS combination with water electrolysis. These systems have been the subject of numerous previous analytical studies and laboratory demonstrations. In this investigation, the systems are objectively compared on the basis of thermochemical performance models using a commonly used chemical plant analysis software package. The realistic effects of incomplete chemical conversion and gas phase separator performance are included in these models. This study focuses on the chemical processing and product separation subsystems. The CO2 compression upstream of the chemical plane and the liquefaction/storage components are not included here.
Document ID
19990087470
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Green, S. T.
(Southwest Research Inst. San Antonio, TX United States)
Deffenbaugh, D. M.
(Southwest Research Inst. San Antonio, TX United States)
Miller, M. A.
(Southwest Research Inst. San Antonio, TX United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1999
Publication Information
Publication: Abstracts In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU 3) Technical Interchange Meeting: Abstracts
Subject Category
Engineering (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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