Testing and Modeling of the Mars Atmospheric Processing Module
| Autor: | James G. Captain, Rupert U. Lee, Ricardo M. Gomez Cano, Jared Berg, Elspeth M. Petersen, Malay Shah, Jon A. Bayliss, Paul E. Hintze, Bruce T. Vu, Alexander Walts, Anthony C. Muscatello, Rene Formoso, Anne J. Meier |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
020301 aerospace & aeronautics
business.industry In situ resource utilization 02 engineering and technology Atmosphere of Mars Mars Exploration Program Exploration of Mars Regolith Methane Astrobiology Atmosphere chemistry.chemical_compound 020303 mechanical engineering & transports Pathfinder 0203 mechanical engineering chemistry Aerospace engineering business Geology |
| Zdroj: | AIAA SPACE and Astronautics Forum and Exposition. |
| DOI: | 10.2514/6.2017-5149 |
| Popis: | Here we report further progress in the development of the MARCO POLO-Mars Pathfinder Atmospheric Processing Module (APM). The APM is designed to demonstrate in situ resource utilization (ISRU) of the Martian atmosphere, which primarily consists of carbon dioxide (CO2). The APM is part of a larger project with the overall goal of collecting and utilizing CO2 found in the atmosphere and water in the regolith of Mars to produce methane and oxygen to be used as rocket propellant, eliminating the need to import those to Mars for human missions, thus significantly reducing costs. The initial focus of NASA's new ISRU Project is modeling of key ISRU components, such as the CO2 Freezers and the Sabatier reactor of the APM. We have designed models of those components and verified the models with the APM by gathering additional data for the Sabatier reactor. Future efforts will be focused on simultaneous operations of the APM and other MARCO POLO-Mars Pathfinder modules. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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