Resource Prospector Lander: Architecture and trade studies

NASA´s Resource Prospector (RP) is a multi-center and multi-institution collaborative project to investigate the polar regions of the Moon in search of volatiles. The mission is rated Class D and the duration is approximately 10 days. The RP vehicle comprises three elements: the Lander, the Rover, and the Payload. The Payload is housed on the Rover and the Rover is on top of the Lander. The focus of this paper is on the Lander element for the RP vehicle. The design of the Lander was requirements-driven and focused on a low-cost approach. To arrive at the final configuration, several multi-disciplinary trade studies were conducted. There were several primary trade studies that were instrumental in determining the final design. This paper will discuss six of these trades in further detail and show how these trades led to the final architecture of the RP Lander.