LSRW Poster Connorgeiman Orbitfab

In-Situ Propellant Architecture for Near-Term Lunar Missions
Connor Geiman,† Daniel Faber, James Bultitude, Zachary Burkhardt, and Aiden O’Leary
†
Engineering Intern
Off-planet manufacture of propellants is critical to the sustainability of space exploration. But

no minimum viable product for in-situ propellant production exists for a location such as the Moon. This
is primarily due to the lack of storability for typical in-situ derived propellants such as hydrolox, the cryo-
genic bipropellant of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Other cryogenic fuels that have additional elements,
such as methane, are difficult to create in-situ due to resource limitations. Most storable alternatives to
cryogenic propellant are toxic and also require hard-to-find elements in-situ.
Orbit Fab has undertaken a propulsion system trade study, summarized in Table 1. One nontoxic,
storable monopropellant stands out for near-term in-situ resource utilization (ISRU): high-test per-
oxide (HTP), which can be made directly from water. HTP catalytically decomposes into oxygen and water
vapor and can provide high-density specific impulse to power a lunar or small body ascent vehicle.
Table 1: In-situ propulsion system trade study shows the advantages of HTP monopropellant
Figure 1: Notional block diagram highlighting major subsystems of water-to-HTP system
Orbit Fab is developing a system that radically simplifies the pro-

duction of hydrogen peroxide while increasing its availability both on
and off Earth. A diagram of this system, currently at TRL 3, is shown in
Figure 3: Milestone schedule from requirements capture to TRL 6 HTP production system MVP in a
Figure 1. Peroxide is continuously produced from purified water using
12-month development period
a proton exchange membrane (PEM) cell (Figure 2) developed by the
Wang Group at Rice University and licensed to Orbit Fab.1 The peroxide
is concentrated to 90–98% HTP and stored. This HTP production sys-
tem could enable in-situ HTP use within a few years. An MVP devel-
1. Launch sampling, refueling, and
opment timeline is presented in Figure 3 that will raise the system to
2. CLPS landing ascent hardware with CLPS lander
TRL 6. Past work by John S. Lewis analyzed storable propellant feasibili-
ty for in-situ utilization,2 which will catalyze Orbit Fab’s efforts to further
increase the TRL for spaceflight. Figure 4 shows a potential lunar ISRU 8. Entry into LEO
sample return mission demonstrating the capability of Orbit Fab’s HTP 3. Deploy sampling, refueling,
production system. A 250 kg dry mass (mdry) lunar ascent vehicle return- and ascent hardware
ing from the lunar surface to low-Earth orbit rendezvous requires 1359 (fuel tank empty) 10. Rendezvous and
kg of HTP monopropellant, assuming specific impulse (Isp) of 150 s and docking with re-entry 9. Re-entry vehicle
∆v of 2.74 km/s. This is calculated using the ideal rocket equation (Equa- vehicle using SPARK* launch and LEO
tion 1), where mwet is fueled vehicle mass and g0 is standard gravity. 7. Ascent and insertion
Figure 2: Orbit Fab is building 4. Lunar regolith 11. Sample transfer
return to Earth
∆v = Isp g0 ln(mwet/mdry) (1) sampling to re-entry vehicle
upon Rice University Wang 13. Re-entry,
The HTP used for this mission’s lunar ascent and return to LEO can be Group’s patented peroxide 6. HTP production
touchdown, and
12. Undocking
made on the lunar surface from water using the Orbit Fab system. PEM cell sample recovery
5. Feed water to and refueling of using SPARK
HTP factory ascent stage
References

1
Xia, Chuan, et al. “Direct Electrosynthesis of Pure Aqueous H2O2 Solutions up to 20% by Weight Using
a Solid Electrolyte.” Science, vol. 366, no. 6462, Oct. 2019, pp. 226–31 Figure 4: Potential lunar mission with sample return and HTP production system-enabled ascent
2
Lewis, John S. “In-Space Production of Storable Propellants.” 1 Mar. 2016. vehicle refueling could be ready to fly as early as 2023

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In-Situ Propellant Architecture for Near-Term Lunar Missions

Off-planet manufacture of propellants is critical to the sustainability of space exploration. But

Figure 1: Notional block diagram highlighting major subsystems of water-to-HTP system

Orbit Fab is developing a system that radically simplifies the pro-

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