Ground operations considerations for design of human missions to Mars

Author

Campbell, Jeff ; Smith, Thomas H.

Author_Institution

Exploration Office, NASA Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Volume

2

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

199

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the initial launch site requirements necessary to support a human mission to Mars. The Design Reference Mission 3.0 (DRM 3.0)^[1] was used to provide a baseline mission architecture. In addition, two launch vehicle configurations were evaluated; a partially reusable launch vehicle and a completely reusable two stage to orbit concept. The study concluded that the current mission architecture requiring launches every 30 days can be optimized in order to realize significant cost reductions for facility infrastructure at the launch site. Launch site considerations and mission architecture changes were identified that will reduce the infrastructure costs associated with launch site processing as well as reduce and simplify ground checkout

Keywords

Mars; ground support systems; space research; space vehicles; Design Reference Mission 3.0; Mars; baseline mission architecture; cost reductions; facility infrastructure; ground checkout; ground operations considerations; human missions; initial launch site requirements; launch vehicle configurations; partially reusable launch vehicle; reusable two stage to orbit concept; Biographies; Cost function; Government; Humans; Low earth orbit satellites; Mars; NASA; Payloads; Space missions; Vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference Proceedings, 2000 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5846-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2000.878225

Filename

878225