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Advanced Propulsion Options for the Mars Cargo Mission Document ADB1865359/1/1989

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Advanced Propulsion Options for the Mars Cargo Mission Document ADB1865359/1/1989 This document is made available through the declassification efforts and research of John Greenewald, Jr., creator of: The Black Vault The Black Vault is the largest online Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document clearinghouse in the world. The research efforts here are responsible for the declassification of hundreds of thousands of pages released by the U.S. Government & Military. Discover the Truth at: http://www.theblackvault.com National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA Management Office FOIA Public Liaison Office 4800 Oak Grove Dr., MIS 180-200K Pasadena, CA 91109-8001 Reply to Attn of: RAOOOINMO March 5,2019 Mr. John Greenewald [email protected] 27305 W. Live Oak Rd., Ste. 1203 Castaic, CA 91384-4520 Re: FOIA Request 19-JPL-F-00180 Dear Mr. Greenewald: Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dated and received in our office on December 13,2018. Your request was assigned Case File Number 19-JPL-F-00180. Due to lapse of federal funding, NASA was closed from December 26,2018 through January 28,2019, which caused the delay in processing your FOIA request. Your request was for: Advanced Propulsion Options For The Mars Cargo Mission Document ADB1865359/1/1989 We found a record responsive to your request. Portions of this record were withheld pursuant to FOIA Exemption 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(3), relying on 22 U.S.C. § 2751, et seq., the Arms Export Control Act, which protects certain export-controlled information. 24 pages are being released in full (RIF); 1 19 pages are being released in part (RIP); 115 pages are withheld in full (WIF); .Q pages are duplicate copies of material already processed; .Q pages were referred to another office/agency. You have the right under 14 CFR §1206.700 to appeal this determination within 90 days from the date of this letter. 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You may also send correspondence to Ms. Gramian at the following address: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Freedom of Infonnation Act Unit NASA Headquarters Attn: Nikki Gramian Principal Agency FOIA Officer 300 E Street, S.W., 5P32 Washington D.C. 20546 Fax: (202) 358-4332 \ Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Infonnation Services (OGIS) at the national Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA dispute resolution services it offers. The contact infonnation for OGIS is: Office of Government Infonnation Services National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS College Park, Maryland 20740-6001 Email: [email protected] Telephone: (202) 741-5770 Toll free: 1-877-684-6448 Fax: (202) 741-5769 Important: Please note that contacting any agency official including the undersigned or NASA's Principal FOIA Officer and/or OGIS referenced above is not an alternative to filing an administrative appeal and does not stop the 90 day appeal clock. By not stating a willingness to pay fees, we interpreted that you requested a fee waiver but your request did not contain sufficient infonnation for us to make a detennination regarding a fee waiver. In accordance with NASA FOIA Regulations, 14 CFR § 1206.506, the burden is on the requester to justify an entitlement to a fee waiver. (See 14 CFR § 1206.507 for a discussion on fee categories). Requests for a waiver or reduction of fees shall be considered on a case-by-case basis using the criteria in this section. Fee waivers are decided once all records are processed. These statutory requirements must be satisfied by the requester before properly assessable fees are waived or reduced under the statutory standard. You requested to be categorized as a "representative ofthe news media" but you did not provide sufficient information for placement in this requester category in accordance with NASA FOIA Regulations 14 CFR § 1206.507. Requester category shall be considered on a case-by-case basis using the criteria in this section. Therefore, we placed your request in the "all others" category for fee purposes. In this category, requesters are afforded two hours of search and 100 pages of copy/scan without charge. Fees for processing this request are less than $50.00 and are not being charged in accordance with 14 CFR §1206.504(f). In accordance with § 1206.804 (c), after consultation with the NASA Management Office General Counsel Office, I am the official responsible for the initial determination of your request. If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me in writing to this center at the address shown on the letterhead. You may also e-mail correspondence to [email protected] or reach me by telephone at 818-393-6779 and fax at 818-393-3160. Also, you may contact Ms. Nikki Gramian, Principal Agency FOIA Officer and Chief Public Liaison at the information provided above. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Freedom of Information Act Public Liaison Officer Enclosure: JPL D-6620 Advanced Propulsion for the Mars Cargo Mission So we may improve our FOIA Program, please complete a short survey at the following web site: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/FOIAljpllfoia_survey.htm JPL D-6620 Advanced Propulsion Options for the Mars Cargo Mission R. H. Frisbee • G. sargent J. J. Blanaino J. C. Sercel N.Gowda September 1989 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena. California D - 6 620 ABSTRACT This report summarizes the results of an evaluation of a variety of advanced low·lhrust propulsion options for the cargo-delivery portion of a split-mission piloted Mars exploration scenario. The propulsion opUons considered were solar sails. 'OO-MWtj class . nuclear ejectric propulsion (NEP), 100-MV'le class solar electric propulsion (SEP). magnetic sails (magsails), mass drivers, rail guns. solar thermal rockets. beamed-energy (laser and microwave) propulsion systems. and tethers. The requirement was to transport 400 metric tons (MT) of cargo from a 500-km altitude low Earth orbit (LEO) to a 6000-km ~Ititude Mars orbit (e.g., Phobos' orbit) for the 2014 opportunity. The primary figures of merit used in this study were total initial mass in low Earth orbit (IMLEO) and the Earth-to-Mars trip time. The baseline propulsion system, against which the advanced propulsion concepts were compared, was an aerobraked chemical (02/H2) propulsion system with a specific impulse (Isp) of 470 Ibf-sllbm. This system had an imtial total mass in LEO of 164u MT (including p~yload) and had an Earth-to-Mars trip time of 294 days. 1t was found that solar sails can provide the greatest mass savings over the baseline chemical system. However, solar sails suffer from having very long trip times. A good performance compromise between a low IMLEO and a short trip time can be obtained by using 100-MWe class NEP systems: they can even be lighter and faster overall than the baseline chemical system. Such systems may be particularly suited to the piloted portion of the mission, where a ~remium is placed on trip time. A 100-MWe SEP system is a close competitor to the NEP system, p'roviding almost as good a performance, but without the technological. operational, or ·poli1ical" constraints of space nuclear power. Magsail, mass driver. beame&:f.energy, and tether concepts were found to have moderate benefits in mass or trip time. but their performance is contingent on several factors which could reduce their effectiveness. For example, the magsail concept. like the solar sail. has infinite specific impulse. However, magsails can only operate far from a planet; this imposes a large infrastructure overhead since a fleet of orbit transfer vehicles (OTV) are required to transport the magsails and their payloads from LEO to the magsail operational orbit. Mass dnvers have a low ISJ) for the Mars cargo mission but they do have a high efficiency (electric-to-jet power). llley also can make use of any material as propellant. Thus, if copious amounts of "free" lunar 02 propellant were available, a mass driver operating at modest power levels (10 MWe or less) could show a mass savings over the baseline system, and do so for trip times on the order of 500 days. However, this is contingent on the availabiU"y of "free" lunar propellant; without this "free" propellant, the mass dnver is not competitive. Beamed-energy concepts were found to provide some benefits in mass when used as OlVs to deploy the payload (with a chemical 02/H2 stage for Earth escape and aerocapture and Mars) at GEO altitudes. A laser-augmented SEP vehicle used for the round trip to Mars also provides significant tri~ time savings over an un-augmented SEP system. since the laser provides a rapid Earth escape/capture. However. all the beamed-energy concepts suffer from the limited range over which power can be beamed (e.g .• microwaves to GEO or near-visible light to the Moon).
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