Design of a Modular Transportation System for Future Lunar Robotic Missions

Abstract

A new transportation system for future lunar robotic missions should be designed in the frame of the ROBEX project. This system should be able to adapt to different types of payload and different landing sites. First, three different missions during which a LOFAR (low frequency array), a habitat and an ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) plant should be installed and put into operations robotically on the surface of the Moon are defined. The emphasis has been put on the characteristics which have an influence on the design of the transportation system: the payload mass, the dimensions and when required the frequency of the missions. It is followed by the preliminary design of a reusable lunar resupply vehicle. This vehicle is the first element of the modular transportation system under study. As a first step the results of the trajectory analyses and structure pre-sizing, are presented, for this vehicle which should fly at least twice a year from the Moon surface to a low lunar orbit and back.