Analysis of Alternative Architectures for a 2024 Lunar Sortie

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Analysis of Alternative Architectures for a 2024 Lunar Sortie

D. J. Trent / S. J. Edwards

This study focused on performing a broad analysis of lunar architectures to identify key alternatives capable of performing a 2024 human lunar landing mission. The goal of the study was to identify architecture alternatives which exhibit robustness, as measured by launch vehicle payload margin, to absorb the natural growth that occurs during design maturation. The study consisted of up to three element architectures which perform the mission from cis-lunar aggregation, through the surface sortie, and return to cis-lunar space. More than 600,000 data points were evaluated utilizing a novel architecture synthesis framework currently being developed by NASA/MSFC. Key findings from the study indicate that architecture complexity can be reduced by minimizing the number of discrete, unique architecture elements, which in turn translates into reduced design, development, test, and evaluation (DDT&E) complexity. It was identified that heavy lift launch vehicles enable such architectures while also providing significant increases to launch vehicle margin over existing and near-term commercial launch vehicle (CLV) performance expected in the 2024 time frame. Additionally, the study identified storable propellant based lander architectures as leading alternatives in achieving a 2024 human lunar landing by providing reduced technology needs and development schedules.