Projects per year
Abstract
This paper presents a preliminary design for a crewed transportation system to Mars, looking at both the vehicle and mission design trade-offs. The mission requirements are for a return mission to Mars, with a variable stay time on/around the planet. The vehicle is designed for a minimum crew of 3 plus 50 t cargo, and assumes in-orbit assembly and re-fueling options. A nominal vehicle design was developed using a bimodal nuclear propulsion system. A multi-objective optimisation was run examining the trade-offs between flight times, and total duration, for different Mars stay times, planetary conjunction angles, dry masses and engine sizing, and the mission trajectories.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Number of pages | 10 |
Publication status | Published - 25 Oct 2021 |
Event | 72nd International Astronautical Congress - Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Duration: 25 Oct 2021 → 29 Oct 2021 https://iac2021.org/ https://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2021/ |
Conference
Conference | 72nd International Astronautical Congress |
---|---|
Abbreviated title | IAC 2021 |
Country/Territory | United Arab Emirates |
City | Dubai |
Period | 25/10/21 → 29/10/21 |
Internet address |
Keywords
- nuclear propulsion
- Mars mission
- design optimisation
- mission analysis
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Design optimisation and analysis of very high power transportation system to Mars'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
-
Assessment of a very high power cargo transportation system to Mars
Maddock, C. (Principal Investigator), Minisci, E. (Co-investigator), Vasile, M. (Co-investigator) & Ricciardi, L. A. (Research Co-investigator)
1/06/20 → 15/12/20
Project: Research