In Situ Propellant Alternatives for a Lunar Ascent/Descent Vehicle

Abstract

Recently, NASA has pushed for returning humans to the moon sustainably with in situ resource utilization as the central focus. The moon has an abundance of water that is proposed to be electrolyzed into hydrogen and oxygen to be used as propellant. Other volatiles such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, and methane are also present. A mission architecture for a lunar ascent/descent vehicle (LADV) from the Polytechnic University of Turin and nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) engine models from the University of Alabama in Huntsville were used to compare in-situ-derived propellants for a LADV. This study considered a LADV originating from the lunar surface, delivering a payload in the lunar distant retrograde orbit, and returning to the lunar surface for retanking. This research analyzed the impacts on this mission of using hydrogen NTP, water/ammonia NTP, liquid-oxygen augmented nuclear thermal rocket, and Aeon 1 methane–oxygen engines using the selected architecture and tools. The results were compared to the reference hydrogen–oxygen RL10 engine. The propulsion system comparison analysis showed that combustion engines will offer better overall performance than NTP-based engines due to a 50% decrease in propellant volume, a 20% decrease in dry mass, and a lower propellant mass than the water and ammonia NTP systems. Both the hydrogen–oxygen and methane–oxygen propulsion systems will have similar propellant masses when compared to other systems. This is due to the order of magnitude higher mass of the NTP engines, with the highest mass contribution coming from the reactor. However, both water and ammonia alternative propellant NTP engines can still be viable candidates for the usage of these minimally processed propellants to satisfy this mission.