In Situ Propellant Alternatives for a Lunar Ascent/Descent Vehicle

What is it about?

This researched looked at different propulsion system options for a Lunar Ascent/Descent Vehicle launching from the Lunar surface, delivering a payload to the Lunar orbit, and returning to the Lunar surface for retanking using propellants that are available on the Moon. The propulsion systems examined were chemical engines and nuclear thermal propulsion engines. The categories that were analyzed for system performance were the volume of the propellant, mass of propellant, vehicle dry mass, number of aggregation launches, and number of missions possible per engine block. The propulsion system that yielded the best overall performance were the chemical engines due to the order of magnitude higher engine dry mass of nuclear thermal propulsion engines.

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