A carbon dioxide thermal rocket that utilizes an indigenous resource in raw form for Mars exploration

Abstract

A CO2 thermal rocket that utilizes an indigenous resource directly for propulsion in Mars is proposed. The cycle of the proposed novel CO2 thermal rocket combines a CO2 power cycle with a cryogenic cycle, which is driven by solar energy. Filling CO2 after every hop enables the concept hopper with the CO2 thermal rocket to visit several regions of the planet. The energy available for consumption in the processes of the proposed CO2 thermal rocket is analysed; the simulation results obtained by applying the first law of thermodynamics show that the performance of the cycle of the CO2 thermal rocket is improved by properly designing such a system for the recovery of freezing CO2 cold energy and waste heat during the cryogenic cycle. Furthermore, the effect of thermodynamic parameters on the performance of the cycle of the CO2 thermal rocket is evaluated through parametric analysis; the results show that environmental temperature, nozzle inlet temperature, helium mass flowrate, etc. are the factors affecting thrust-specific power consumption.