Moon Plan Requires Mix of Old, New Rocket Engines - AW&ST

New/Old engines for Space trip...

Moon Plan Requires Mix of Old, New Rocket Engines
Aviation Week & Space Technology 09/26/05
author: Frank Morring, Jr.

Rocket engines from across the history of the U.S. space program would power NASA's new exploration plan, along with a new development that could draw its fuel from the atmosphere of Mars.

Planners on the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), released last week, chose the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne space shuttle main engine (SSME) and the ATK reusable solid rocket motor (RSRM) to do the heavy lifting on the way back to the Moon. The idea was to save the time and money of new development.

But one new concept--a methane-fueled rocket--is central to President Bush's January 2004 order to move human exploration out of low Earth orbit (LEO) and use the Moon as a stepping-stone for a trip to Mars. U.S. enginemakers will be asked to build a pressure-fed engine that burns liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane, first to power the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) under development to haul astronauts around
the Earth-Moon system (see p. 26) and later to blast them off the surface of the Moon.

Ultimately, NASA hopes to produce methane fuel on Mars to save weight on the outward journey to the red planet. That way, a mature version of the engine originally developed for the CEV and lunar lander could be applied to Mars exploration as well.

Aerospace | Engineering