Sridhar K R, Finn J E, Kliss M H
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721, USA.
Adv Space Res. 2000;25(2):249-55. doi: 10.1016/s0273-1177(99)00955-2.
The atmosphere of Mars has many of the ingredients that can be used to support human exploration missions. It can be "mined" and processed to produce oxygen, buffer gas, and water, resulting in significant savings on mission costs. The use of local materials, called ISRU (for in-situ resource utilization), is clearly an essential strategy for a long-term human presence on Mars from the standpoints of self-sufficiency, safety, and cost. Currently a substantial effort is underway by NASA to develop technologies and designs of chemical plants to make propellants from the Martian atmosphere. Consumables for life support, such as oxygen and water, will probably benefit greatly from this ISRU technology development for propellant production. However, the buffer gas needed to dilute oxygen for breathing is not a product of a propellant production plant. The buffer gas needs on each human Mars mission will probably be in the order of metric tons, primarily due to losses during airlock activity. Buffer gas can be separated, compressed, and purified from the Mars atmosphere. This paper discusses the buffer gas needs for a human mission to Mars and consider architectures for the generation of buffer gas including an option that integrates it to the propellant production plant.
火星的大气层包含许多可用于支持人类探索任务的成分。它可以被“开采”和加工以生产氧气、缓冲气体和水，从而大幅节省任务成本。从自给自足、安全和成本的角度来看，使用当地材料（即原位资源利用，ISRU）显然是人类在火星长期存在的一项基本策略。目前，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）正在大力开展工作，以开发利用火星大气层制造推进剂的化工厂技术和设计。生命支持消耗品，如氧气和水，可能会从这种用于推进剂生产的原位资源利用技术开发中受益匪浅。然而，用于稀释呼吸用氧气的缓冲气体并非推进剂生产厂的产品。每次人类火星任务所需的缓冲气体可能达数公吨，这主要是由于气闸活动期间的损耗。缓冲气体可以从火星大气层中分离、压缩和提纯。本文讨论了人类火星任务对缓冲气体的需求，并考虑了缓冲气体生成架构，其中包括一种将其与推进剂生产厂整合的方案。
