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50 Chapter 6. System-Level Considerations Mass and power are not equally reported on the produced Sabatier reactor systems shown in Table 6.4. The KSC Sabatier reactor system is reported at 2 kg, while the PNNL microchannel system is reported at 0.09 kg and the PCI Microlith® is reported at 1.75 kg. It is important to note that for a long-duration, deep space mission, a Sabatier reactor will be embedded into an entire autonomous system with controlled automation and active, unattended thermal management. The system hardware and thermal management will add to mass and a careful systems level approach will be performed to save on mass. The issue of cooling must be considered for Martian environments, as well as power cycles if a constant power source is not present. There will also be no opportunity to change out a spent or damaged catalyst bed if operating continuously without human interface for fuel production. This complexity adds to avionics, controls, redundancy, auto correction, and power systems that require a systems-level perspective for a mission with specific requirements. These system and fuel production requirements will dictate the approximate power and mass needed for a mission. For example, the work done on the Mars Atmospheric Conversion ISRU system at Kennedy Space Center considers the mass and power of the Sabatier reactor, cooling system, and Mars CO2 acquisition hardware. Theoretical power estimates for a Mars Ascent Vehicle for a human Mars mission have been reported (Muscatello et al., 2016), but Sabatier numbers have not yet been published. 6.5.4 Commodity Acquisition for the Sabatier Reactor The design requirements for fuel production needed for a human-rated Mars Ascent Vehicle are currently not established. Estimates have been made of production rates and purity requirements. At Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the Mars Atmospheric ISRU system is sized for a Mars Sample Return mission, and currently 1/10th the scale that would be needed for a human Mars mission ISRU fuel production depot (Muscatello et al., 2016). Currently, the Mars Atmospheric Processing Module collects 88 g CO2/hr from a simulated Mars atmosphere (95.4% CO2, 3% nitrogen (N2), and 1.6% argon (Ar)) and pressure. The system utilizes dual-operating cryocoolers for CO2 acquisition from the Mars atmosphere, and is one consideration for collecting and separating the CO2 from the Mars atmosphere. The current CO2 collection rate produces 32 g/hr of CH4 using the cryocoolers for CO2 acquisition and the Sabatier reactor for CH4 and H2O production. In theory, the H2 would be harvested from the H2O extracted from excavated regolith that is collected from a soil hopper. This water or hydrated mineral would be separated from the regolith and cleaned in a water processing module, split with an electrolyzer or other available water-spitting technology, and H2 would sustain the Sabatier reactor, while O2 would be sent to liquefaction and storage. From work at KSC on the cryocoolers and Sabatier Mars Atmospheric ISRU system, it was reported that for cryocooler operations in the laboratory with a Cryotel GT Cryocooler, the maximum cooling power froze 102 g CO2/hr at approximately 158 W from a 240-W-capacityPDF Image | ISRU Challenge Production of O2 and Fuel from CO2
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