COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ISRU-BASED TRANSPORTATION ARCHITECTURES FOR THE MOON AND MARS: LOX/LH2 vs. LOX/Methane

Introduction: Space exploration missions are dependent on large vehicles launched from Earth even when the payloads are small. Even though staging would increae the efficiency of missions to other planets and celectial bodies, the massive launch vehicles needed for the completion of such missions make them practically infeasible. If propellants can be produced and stored on the Moon, Mars, etc., the need for these massive systems disappears, making space exploration more feasible (technically and economically) and safe because redundant and emergency systems can then be created at lower costs and shorther times. Background: Obviously, the availability of resources plays a mayor role as it does the performance of the current rocket engines. When studying the Moon and Mars there are two clear choices: oxygen/hydrogen, and oxygen/methane propulsion systems. We have chosen to use data from the Apollo missions to asses the availability of resources o the Moon and other data from NASA missions for the resources on the Moon and Mars, as well as other bodies. Table 1. provides an overview of the abundancy of resources on the Moon, Mars, and Phobos.