Near-Term Mars Colonization

1. Near-Term Mars Colonization -A DevelopSpace Project- June 28th, 2008

2. Agenda • Transportation architecture revisited • Surface manufacturing strategy • Surface food production strategy • Hab update (Arthur)

3. Transportation Update • Previous transportation strategy was based on use of ~12 mt aeroshells with diameters around 5 m • This leads to a significantly increased number of aeroshells that need to be built, as well as to reduced maximum volume of items that can be transported to Mars • Analysis was carried out to determine whether it is possible to use a single ~24 mt aeroshell • Upper stage diameters: • Falcon 9 heavy: 3.6 m • Delta IV heavy: 5 m • => Hammerhead required Trajectory /aerodynamic limit

4. Aerodynamic Properties Aeroshell • Basic shape is blunted cone with 20-degree side-wall angle • Achieves L/D of 0.3 at 18.5-degree angle of attack • Drag coefficient of ~1.5 at 18.5-degree angle of attack • Shape is similar to SpaceX Dragon capsule • May be possible to utilize aerodynamic database from Dragon • Possibly use Dragon derivative? SpaceX Dragon

5. Preliminary Transportation Cost Assessment • Falcon 9 Heavy [FY 2008 $] • $ 94.5 Mn per shot for LEO mission • Lander costs [FY 2004 $] • Dry mass: 2453 kg • Development: $ 1482 Mn • Production (1st unit): $ 112 Mn • Aeroshell costs [FY 2004 $] • Dry mass: 8000 kg • Development: $ 2839 Mn • Production (1st unit): $ 245 Mn • TMI stage [FY 2004 $] • Dry mass: ~5000 kg • Development: $ 560 Mn • Production (1st unit): $ 32 Mn • Approximate marginal cost for transporting 10 mt to the surface of Mars: • (3 x 94.5 + 2 x 32 + 112 + 245)*1.2 = 845.4 • $ 84540 / kg on the surface of Mars

6. Surface Manufacturing Strategy (1) • Major needs during the early toehold stage: • Manufacturing of spare parts for subsystems • Manufacturing of IVA / EVA tools • Possibly manufacturing of structure for expansion of pressurized volume and for ISCP • Materials than can be produced in-situ on Mars: • Polyethylene (PE) and other polymers (from RWGS) • Iron / steel (significant infrastructure required) • Ceramics and bricks (from baking regolith) • Aluminum (significant infrastructure required) • Copper (significant infrastructure required) • Chapter 7 in Zubrin’s case for Mars provides a good overview • Quantitative assessment of infrastructure required

7. Acquiring water on Mars 4 possible sources: Underground aquifer Topsoil (1-3% by weight) Atmosphere Permafrost Extraction from topsoil and atmosphere may be easiest initially (less infrastructure) Could use tent-like structure, condenser, and sunlight (concept by Zubrin) Water provides breathing oxygen and hydrogen for further ISCP (also PE) It has been proposed to synthesize PE based on products from RWGS: 6H2+2CO2=>2H2O+2CO+4H2 2CO+4H2=>C2H4+2H2O n x C2H4 => PE We need to carry out a more detailed analysis of these processes Surface Manufacturing Strategy (2)

8. Food Sourcing (1) • Reminder: food remains one of the largest re-supply items (strong incentive for achieving higher closure) • Ways to close the food loop (in order of difficulty) • Growing fruits / vegetables with aeroponics / hydroponics • Growing algae, subsequent processing into edible form • Growing edible fungi (for some types no light required) • Traditional soil agriculture using Martian soil / regolith • Breeding animals (chicken, fish; both still quite inefficient) • Chemical regeneration of foods (formose, lipids, starch etc.) • Analysis required to determine which ways are most effective during different stages of colony

9. Food Sourcing (2) • Notional roadmap as point of departure: • Phase 1: • Food mostly imported from Earth in de-hydrated form • Some fruits and vegetables grown hydro- / aeroponically to supplement de-hydrated food (nutrients brought from Earth) • Possibly use of some fungi / algae as nutrition supplement • Phase 2: • Food partially imported from Earth, partially generated locally • In-situ nutrient production, use of Martian soil • Possibly use of some fungi / algae as nutrition supplement • Phase 3: • Food mostly produced on Mars using in-situ nutrients and soil • Algae and fungi as supplement, possibly also some animals • Predominantly vegetarian life-style

10. Arthur’s Hab Update • Should be in your inbox at this time… 

11. Backup Slides

12. Mars Wish List

13. Transportation • Automated Mars landing and hazard avoidance navigation systems • Mars in-situ propellant production friendly rocket combustion / performance characterization (C2H4/LOX; CH4/LOX); more important if people want to come back • Large-scale (20mt+) Mars aero-entry (and EDL more generally) technology • Low mass, cost, power and ideally autonomous deep-space (out to at least ~2 AU) navigation systems (software, hardware)

14. Power • Automated, large scale (football field+) solar array transport, surface deployment, and maintenance systems • High energy density electrical power storages systems (aiming in particular towards high energy density relative to Earth imported mass) • Mars surface internal combustion engines (LOX, plus various fuels, e.g., C2H4, CH4, CO, etc), possibly with water exhaust reclamation.

15. Life Support, Logistics, ISRU • Mars atmosphere collection systems (at minimum CO2; adding N2 and Ar is useful; H2O depends on energy/mass intensity relative to other options) • Mars permafrost mining systems (for varying wt% H2O); note, this is much easier than mining putative lunar ice • Good, high capacity Mars surface cryocoolers (options for just soft/medium cryogens (e.g., LOX, CH4, C2H4), or also for hard cryogen (LH2)) • Earth-Mars hydrogen transport systems (not necessarily as LH2) • Basic ISRU chemical processing systems (e.g., H2O electrolysis, Sabatier, RWGS, CO2 electrolysis, ethylene production, etc.) • High closure physical-chemical life support systems (e.g., air revitalization, water recycling) • "Food system" for food supplied from Earth. Consider being able to survive on food shipped 5 years ago. • Mars surface food production systems • Simple in-situ manufacturing systems (e.g., for spare parts) • Simple raw materials production (e.g., plastics such polyethylene, epoxies, ceramics, etc.)

16. Outpost Ops and Surface Exploration • Mars surface communication and navigation systems (e.g., for rovers), sans extensive satellite constellation • Very high data rate Mars-Earth back-haul comm system • Good Mars surface EVA suits • Data collection, analysis in support of landing site / outpost location selection • Very long distance surface mobility systems (including with people) • Solar flare / SPE warning systems