A Global Access Transportation System for a Mars Exploration Architecture Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2018, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. A Mars mission architecture design challenge was developed by Dr. George James (NASA JSC) and Professor Gregory Chamitoff (instructor for the course) for a Texas A&M University Aerospace Engineering senior capstone design course.The challenge involved developing an architecture that met the following requirements: initiate long-term population growth and expansion, create a transportation system capable of global exploration, establish in-situ resource utilization systems, habitat and research facilities, and global tele-robotics. This paper will focus on the crew transportation aspect within the Martian system, and the underlying challenges, namely designing a safe, reliable, and reusable vehicle capable of transporting the crew to and from orbit, and to distant geographic locations. Ultimately, a design consisting of two separate crew transportation vehicles was chosen to address these challenges and achieve long term growth, global exploration, and scientific advancement on the surface of Mars.

name of conference

  • 2018 AIAA SPACE and Astronautics Forum and Exposition

published proceedings

  • 2018 AIAA SPACE and Astronautics Forum and Exposition

author list (cited authors)

  • Hunt, T., Johns, M. N., Call, D. L., Mullen, D., James, G. H., & Chamitoff, G. E.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Hunt, Tanner||Johns, Matthew N||Call, Dustin L||Mullen, Daniel||James, George H||Chamitoff, Gregory E

publication date

  • January 2018