Lunar Propellant Factory Mission Design To Sustain Future Human Exploration

The International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) is the standard document reflecting the current focus of the leading space agencies that envision space exploration missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), returning to the Moon and going to Mars in the upcoming years. The roadmap showcases the Moon as a stepping-stone for further human space exploration, by setting up a sustainable space infrastructure on its surface an orbit. Inspired from this vision, we present the result of a phase A study about a lunar propellant factory near the Shackleton south-pole crater relying on In-Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU) to produce and sell Liquid Oxygen (LOX) on the moon surface and in orbit. The overall timeline of the mission is in line with the ISECG exploration roadmap Moon phase, based on realistic technologies of advanced-enough Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). It is a second iteration on the Lunar Propellant Outpost (LUPO) mission architecture, presented during IAC 2018. We preserved and reviewed the original building blocks (Habitats, Crew Mobility Elements, ISRU Facilities, and Lunar Spaceport) of the LUPO mission architecture, and further improved the mission design, supported by trade-off analysis on different mission scenarios. An extensive analysis and optimisation have been performed on ISRU processes and surface electrical power management, the core of our infrastructure. The mission architecture also includes crew on the lunar surface, so life support systems and habitat, as well as operations concepts, have been studied in-depth, and a synthesis of all results is presented. The main aim of this iteration was to improve and refine the baseline infrastructural and technological design architecture of LUPO and reflect on missions going beyond the Moon by providing refuelling services, with sustainability and economic viability in mind

HIGH TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS AT THE INTERNAL NOZZLE WALL OF THE ZEPHYR

In this thesis the heat transfer theory is studied and applied to develop a theoretical model which can be used to estimate exhaust gas temperature of ZEpHyR main engine developed at ZARM institute. The conjugate gradient method with adjoint problem for function estimation iterative technique is used to solve the Inverse Heat Conduction Problem (IHCP) to estimate heat flux and internal wall temperature of throat section of the nozzle. The convective heat transfer coefficient is calculated using Bartz equation. The exhaust gas temperature is determined using estimated heat flux, internal wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient. The model is verified by comparing the estimated flux with the results from a published research. The nozzle is made of Molybdenum material and the exhaust gas temperature is determined to check material’s capability to withstand high gas temperature.Validerat; 20141101 (global_studentproject_submitter