Mars Atmosphere Resource Verification INsitu (MARVIN) - In Situ Resource Demonstration for the Mars 2020 Mission

Abstract

The making of oxygen from resources in the Martian atmosphere, known as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), has the potential to provide substantial benefits for future robotic and human exploration. In particular, the ability to produce oxygen on Mars for use in propulsion, life support, and power systems can provide significant mission benefits such as a reducing launch mass, lander size, and mission and crew risk. To advance ISRU for possible incorporation into future human missions to Mars, NASA proposed including an ISRU instrument on the Mars 2020 rover mission, through an announcement of opportunity (AO). The purpose of the the Mars Atmosphere Resource Verification INsitu or (MARVIN) instrument is to provide the first demonstration on Mars of oxygen production from acquired and stored Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide, as well as take measurements of atmospheric pressure and temperature, and of suspended dust particle sizes and amounts entrained in collected atmosphere gases at different times of the Mars day and year. The hardware performance and environmental data obtained will be critical for future ISRU systems that will reduce the mass of propellants and other consumables launched from Earth for robotic and human exploration, for better understanding of Mars dust and mitigation techniques to improve crew safety, and to help further define Mars global circulation models and better understand the regional atmospheric dynamics on Mars. The technologies selected for MARVIN are also scalable for future robotic sample return and human missions to Mars using ISRU.

Thermodynamic Modeling of In-Situ Rocket Propellant Fabrication on Mars

“…The power consumption during compression averages 50 W; however, the peak power draw can reach 60 W under typical operating conditions. In addition, employing the ICE CUBE system to liquefy pure carbon dioxide via the miniature cryocooler results in an effective compression of 5000:1 without the use of additional compressor(s) (Sanders et al, 2014). The liquefied carbon dioxide is then stored in a tank at 3.49 MPa and 273.15 K. The subsystem consumes 2.5 W-hr of energy per gram (RE) of carbon dioxide liquefied, which is 3.393 more efficient compared with an RE of 8.48 W-hr/g reported by Muscatello et al (Muscatello et al (2015).…”

“…Therefore, the separation of these gases is assumed necessary while potentially supporting other aspects of a colony. After separation, pure carbon dioxide can be used to produce high purity oxygen as demonstrated by Sanders et al (Sanders et al (2014). Bleeding off pure carbon dioxide for oxygen production can potentially help maintain the CO 2 /H 2 ratio necessary to maintain optimum methane production in the Sabatier catalyst.…”

“…Atmospheric carbon dioxide can be collected from the atmosphere via the Integrated Cryogenic Extraction of Carbon dioxide and Utilization By Expansion (ICE CUBE) technology that was originally designed, developed, and implemented by the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corporation (LMSSC) (Sanders et al, 2014). The choice of this technology serves two purposes: feedstock for the Sabatier reaction and oxygen production for human exploration after CO 2 conversion.…”

“…During this process, water vapor may not be ejected from the system completely. At a 273.15 K thermal interface and a Mars atmospheric temperature of 210 K, the cryocooler delivers 4 W (W) of cooling from an average power draw of 40 W. Assuming an operational efficiency R50%, Sanders et al (2014) showed that the ICE CUBE is capable of delivering approximately 0.16 kg of carbon dioxide per operation cycle (8 h) at a capture rate of 20 g/h. Sanders et al demonstrated this method to be a simple, durable, and mass-and power-efficient TRL6 method.…”