Martian Ascent Vehicle Design

Project Goal: For a mission to Mars, develop an ascent vehicle with mass constraints half that of typical proposals.

NASA is planning for an ascent vehicle to transport two astronauts and a payload of samples from the Mars surface back to a rendezvous spacecraft in low Mars orbit. The primary goal of the MARV-N project is to develop a minimum Mars Ascent Vehicle, or MAV, and identify key technologies and interfaces for meeting mission objectives. The MAV is scheduled to fly at the end of 2035, and it has a projected development budget of $2 billion per year for 10 years, totaling $20 billion.

A MAV design with a wet mass of less than 20,000 kg and a dry mass of less than 5,000 kg equates to half of what has been previously proposed. Development of critical systems and structural testing have advanced enough to allow a full proposal, including CAD designs for major structural components, propulsion system design, ascent planning and trajectory design, rendezvous and docking.