A carbon dioxide thermal rocket that utilizes an indigenous resource in raw form for Mars exploration

Abstract

A CO₂ thermal rocket that utilizes an indigenous resource directly for propulsion in Mars is proposed. The cycle of the proposed novel CO₂ thermal rocket combines a CO₂ power cycle with a cryogenic cycle, which is driven by solar energy. Filling CO₂ after every hop enables the concept hopper with the CO₂ thermal rocket to visit several regions of the planet. The energy available for consumption in the processes of the proposed CO₂ thermal rocket is analysed; the simulation results obtained by applying the first law of thermodynamics show that the performance of the cycle of the CO₂ thermal rocket is improved by properly designing such a system for the recovery of freezing CO₂ cold energy and waste heat during the cryogenic cycle. Furthermore, the effect of thermodynamic parameters on the performance of the cycle of the CO₂ thermal rocket is evaluated through parametric analysis; the results show that environmental temperature, nozzle inlet temperature, helium mass flowrate, etc. are the factors affecting thrust-specific power consumption.