ISRU Propellant: Making Fuel on the Moon versus Shipping It
Why would anyone make rocket propellant on the Moon, who would buy it, and how big would the plants need to be?
Chapter summary
A lander that must bring all its propellant from Earth pays the gear ratio twice, once for the descent propellant and again for the ascent propellant it hauls down to the surface.
Key takeaways
- 1
Refuelling on the surface with lunar oxygen, or with oxygen and hydrogen from ice, breaks that chain.
- 2
The obvious first buyer is the lander fleet itself: a reusable crewed lander needs tens of tonnes of propellant per sortie.
- 3
Published architectures size water plants at tens to thousands of tonnes a year; NASA's own mine-and-process study looked at 10 tonnes of oxygen plus hydrogen in 225 days.
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