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Sorbent Bed Acquisition and Compression of Carbon Dioxide from the Mars Atmosphere
Technical Paper
2000-01-2237
ISSN: 0148-7191, e-ISSN: 2688-3627
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English
Abstract
Human exploration of Mars as well as unmanned sample return missions from Mars can benefit greatly from the use of propellants produced from the resources available from the atmosphere of Mars. The first major step of any in-situ propellant production (ISPP) system is to acquire carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Mars atmosphere and compress it for further chemical processing. One system that performs this step is called a Mars Atmosphere Acquisition and Compression (MAAC) unit. A simple prototype MAAC was developed by JPL as part of the Mars ISPP Precursor (MIP) experiment package for inclusion on the Mars 2001 Surveyor Lander. The MAAC consists of a valved enclosure packed with a sorbent material which selectively adsorbs CO2 from the Mars atmosphere (valves open), desorbs and compresses the acquired CO2 by heating (valves closed) and then delivers the pressurized CO2 to an oxygen generating system where the CO2 is electrolyzed to produce oxygen. This paper presents a description of the MAAC experiment, the several iterations involved in arriving at the MAAC design, and the results of MAAC performance testing.
Authors
- Kenneth R. Johnson - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
- Paul B. Karlmann - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
- Donald Rapp - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
- Pramod K. Sharma - Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Citation
Johnson, K., Karlmann, P., Rapp, D., and Sharma, P., "Sorbent Bed Acquisition and Compression of Carbon Dioxide from the Mars Atmosphere," SAE Technical Paper 2000-01-2237, 2000, https://doi.org/10.4271/2000-01-2237.Also In
References
- Ash, R.L. Dowler, W. L. Varsi, G. Feasibility of Rocket Propellant Production on Mars, Acta Astronautica 5 705 724 1978
- Clark, D.L., In Situ Propellant Production Demonstration, Final Report MCR-95-561, JPL Contract 960247, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Boulder, CO, March 22 1996