What is it about?
Studies of Mars missions over the past thirty years lacked credible cost estimates, so the total mass of materiel delivered to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) was typically used as a rough measure of relative mission cost because the complexity of the mission was thought to be roughly proportional to the initial mass in LEO (IMLEO).
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Why is it important?
Historically, high launch costs led to large investments in space hardware development which led to high space mission costs. Reducing mass became the central theme of space mission engineering. We are now entering a new era where launch costs no longer have the impact that they would have two decades ago.
Perspectives
Launch costs are coming down to the point where we must ask ourselves whether it now makes sense to bring ascent propellants and life support resources from Earth (with higher reliability as a bonus), as opposed to using in situ propellant production and cycling of life support resources.
Richard (Ricky) Smith Jr.
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This page is a summary of: Mars Ascent Propellants and Life Support Resources - Take it or Make it?, IgMin Research, July 2024, IgMin Publications Inc.,
DOI: 10.61927/igmin232.
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