Strategic defense initiative impacts on manned Mars missions

Research conducted on a strategic defense system with space based elements may provide key components of systems necessary for Manned Mars Missions. Three areas of impact are space logistics, space power, and supporting systems. These areas are discussed briefly

The Clementine Bistatic Radar Experiment

During the Clementine 1 mission, a bistatic radar experiment measured the magnitude and polarization of the radar echo versus bistatic angle, beta, for selected lunar areas. Observations of the lunar south pole yield a same-sense polarization enhancement around beta = 0. Analysis shows that the observed enhancement is localized to the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar south pole. Radar observations of periodically solar-illuminated lunar surfaces, including the north pole, yielded no such enhancement. A probable explanation for these differences is the presence of low-loss volume scatterers, such as water ice, in the permanently shadowed region at the south pole

L-VRAP-a lunar volatile resources analysis package for lunar exploration

The Lunar Volatile Resources Analysis Package (L-VRAP) has been conceived to deliver some of the objectives of the proposed Lunar Lander mission currently being studied by the European Space Agency. The purpose of the mission is to demonstrate and develop capability; the impetus is very much driven by a desire to lay the foundations for future human exploration of the Moon. Thus, LVRAP has design goals that consider lunar volatiles from the perspective of both their innate scientific interest and also their potential for in situ utilisation as a resource. The device is a dual mass spectrometer system and is capable of meeting the requirements of the mission with respect to detection, quantification and characterisation of volatiles. Through the use of appropriate sampling techniques, volatiles from either the regolith or atmosphere (exosphere) can be analysed. Furthermore, since L-VRAP has the capacity to determine isotopic compositions, it should be possible for the instrument to determine the sources of the volatiles that are found on the Moon (be they lunar per se, extra-lunar, or contaminants imparted by the mission itself

A Lunar Electromagnetic Launcher

This paper details a lunar surface electromagnetic launcher concept and supporting systems which delivers one metric ton of lunar-derived liquid oxygen to low lunar orbit per payload launch. A passive coaxial accelerator is used to propel a 1240 kg payload module and 2000 kg carriage the length of the gun at 3000 times that of Earth's gravity. The 68 m gun consists of nineteen sections. The first three sections are used for cooling the carriage, inserting the payload module, and rotating both the carriage and payload module to provide ballistic flight stability, respectively. The final two sections decelerate the carriage as it remains on the surface for reuse. The remaining sections of the launcher accelerate the payload module and carriage to 1687 m/s in order for the payload module to obtain an apolune altitude of 100 km. An on-board propulsion system is used to circularize the payload module's orbit at the apolune altitude. The economic value model utilized in this study is the time to break even in terms of accumulated Earth-launched mass. Given the total launcher system mass of 2390 MT and a net liquid oxygen requirement in low Earth orbit of 1000 MT/yr, the time to break even for this launcher design and supporting systems (in lieu of lunar modules using conventional hydrogen/oxygen propulsion) is approximately 11.5 years.Center for Electromechanic