NASA 1996 SBIR Phase I

PROJECT TITLE : Methanol Mars In-Situ Propellant Production

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The Methanol Mars In-Situ Propellant Production (MMISPP) system is a method for producing both storable fuel and oxygen on the surface of Mars with 93% of the required raw material derived from the Martian atmosphere. In the MMISPP system, a reverse water gas shift reactor is run in series with a catalytic methanol reactor to combine a small quantity of imported hydrogen with Martian atmospheric CO2 to produce methanol and water, with the latter product subsequently being electrolyzed to produce oxygen and return hydrogen feedstock to the system. The methanol/oxygen bipropellant so produced can be used as either rocket propellant or to feed electrochemical fuel cells to drive rovers or other ground vehicles. The performance of methanol as a rocket fuel is attractive, and its density is high, making vehicle design easier. In the system employed, approximately 16 kg of methanol/oxygen bipropellant are produced for every kilogram of hydrogen imported to Mars, an attractively high leverage ratio. The primary advantage of the MMISPP system however, is its low power consumption, about half the power of the most efficient alternative Mars in-situ propellant production systems currently being researched

The primary initial application of the MMISPP system is to provide a means to produce storable fuel and liquid oxygen on the surface of Mars out of indigenous materials at low power. Such a system can be used to enable either a robotic Mars Sample Return mission or a human Mars exploration program. However in addition, the MMISPP system could also be used to produce methanol on Earth out of water and CO2.

Current methods of methanol production yield about 27 million metric tons worldwide per year, with the principal feedstocks being natural gas, coal, and wood. All of these have other applications. In contrast, a MMISPP based methanol factory could use renewable energy sources to combine the CO2emissions from existing industrial plants (such as steel mills) with water to produce methanol, thereby supplying the economy with large quantities of storable fuel, while reducing or eliminating steel mill CO2emissions.

Robert Zubrin
Pioneer Astronautics
445 Union Blvd., Suite 125
Lakewood, Colorado 80228

Pioneer Astronautics
445 Union Blvd., Suite 125
Lakewood, Colorado 80228