25 - Mars Reusable Vehicle: Project CharonWith the focus of the international space community shifting to the sustained human ex-ploration of Mars, a tangible need for a vehicle that would facilitate continuous access froma Martian base to a low Martian parking orbit emerges. Such a vehicle could stimulate thegrowth of a Martian colony, thus advancing human exploration of space.The market for such a vehicle was carefully analysed and potential competitors were estab-lished to ensure that the client, Airbus Defence and Space, can become a dominant driver inthis emerging market.

Mission ObjectiveProject Charon has the goal of designing an economical, sustainable, and reusable vehicle toprovide a continuous transportation service for both crew and cargo, between a Low MartianOrbit node and a Mars base, from 2040 onward, in a time frame of 10 weeks by 11 enthusiasticstudents.

System Design

From the very beginning of the project, exten-sive use of Systems Engineering was appliedto the design process, as a tool to come upwith the most economical, sustainable, and ef-fective design option to meet the intended goal.Various design options, also including less con-ventional ones such as a space elevator and aspace plane, were considered. After a thoroughtrade-off process, a single-stage reusable vehi-cle design emerged as best.The latter was then analysed in detail, to guar-antee that every single requirement developedin the initial phase and set by the stakeholderwas met, and to safeguard crew safety andcargo integrity at all costs during all missionprofiles, including off-nominal conditions. Todo so, several subsystems were defined and de-signed, ranging from the structures, propulsionelements of the vehicle, and ground operations,to guidance, navigation, control, human inter-faces, abort system and more. Finally, all sub-systems were integrated together, leading tothe final layout of the vehicle, as shown in thefigure.With the preliminary design now frozen, theemphasis of the upcoming weeks will be onpolishing the final design report, creating ren-derings of the final preliminary design of thevehicle, and preparing the symposium and fi-nal presentation.

Delft University of Technology Design Synthesis Exercise 2020