Systems Engineering and Design of a Martian Launch Vehicle with a Human Crew

Interplanetary human exploration has been gaining momentum with dedicated space missions from space agencies like NASA and SpaceX, that aim to land the first humans on the red planet by 2030. In the last two decades, research on one-way manned missions for setting up automated base stations has been on the rise. We can understand the extremities of Mars now more than ever, because of which it may be concluded that a round mission to Mars is required for better analysis of the Martian environment. This research paper presents a Launch Vehicle design that lifts-off from the red planet and reaches the Low Mars orbit (LMO). The presented study presents an approach for a Mars-bound spacecraft with necessary payloads that include the crew members and their respective needed payloads. The entire mission timeline along with a buffer period has been optimized in accordance with effects of seasonal changes on surrounding temperature and solar irradiance. The paper showcases design and analysis of the launch vehicle for an efficient flight at the proposed launching sites considering the solar radiance and other challenges on the planet. Solutions for obtaining propellant from the Martian environment have been proposed and evaluated. This study includes converting some of Mars's carbon dioxide abundant atmosphere to Oxygen. Amount of propellant required for such a mission has been assessed and used with MOXIE for oxygen generation in the Martian environment. Considering the red planet's harsh environment and thin atmosphere, a capsule has been designed ensuring the safety of the crew members. Trade-offs between the structure, propellant mass, time of flight the total mass that can be lifted from Mars, and strategies to use in-situ materials for sustaining launch requirements are considered.