While the L2 TDRS and crewed circumlunar missions are concluding, the Lunar Vehicle (LV) and the Cislunar Vehicle (CV) will be prepared for the historic lunar landing.
A tCM1_04–04–18–2985 crew module will be attached to a Garage. The CM/Garage combo is then attached to the LV and along with the CV constitutes the vehicles needed for the landing (Image 1).
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| Image 1: The Sample Return vehicles |
After the CM/Garage combination reaches orbit, another VentureStar will bring up the lunar crew. An Outpost vehicle will dock with the RV and accept the crew. It will then dock with the CM attached to the LV and transfer the crew into their lander. The LV will then undock and dock with the CV (Image 2). This configuration will unfortunately cause the CV to fly "upside–down," but this inconvenience should be minor enough to overcome.
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| Image 2: The Sample Return flight configuration |
The CV will fly a "PUT" mission, which will drop off the LV in lunar orbit and then come home. Meanwhile, the LV lands, collects lunar soil, and returns to orbit. At the same time, the CV will be refurbished and refilled and will fly back to lunar orbit for a "FETCH" mission. The LV will dock with the CV and the CV will carry the LV home.
The crew should only work during the lunar day which is around 14 days. However, we wish to land like Apollo did with the sun high enough to cause long shadows to aid in landing. We will land on day 3 of the lunar day. This leaves 11 days for the astronauts to work until night falls.
It will take about 3.5 days to get to lunar orbit and back, for a total of 7 days travel time. They will orbit the Moon for 8 hours (4 orbits) before heading back.
After the historic landing, two astronauts will walk on the Moon. The next day the other two will get to go outside. We will task the crew with an EVA 10 out of the 11 days on the surface. The astronauts will collect a total of 4,586 kg of lunar diamonds.
Since there are two different spacecraft involved, there are going to be different sets of mission parameters.
LUNAR VEHICLE MISSION SPECIFICATIONS
25–day LV mission duration
Down Payload = CM Mass + Garage
Down Payload = 2985 + 272
Down Payload = 3,257 kg
Up Payload = Down Payload + Lunar Diamonds
Up Payload = 3257 + 4586
Up Payload = 7,843 kg
Delta V Budget = Delta V Down + Delta V Up
Delta V Budget = 2.159 + 1.883
Delta V Budget = 4.042 kps
Propellant Requirement = Propellant Down + Propellant Up
Propellant Requirement = 7392 + 5679
Propellant Requirement = 13,071 kg
Propellant Requirement = 72.41% full
CISLUNAR VEHICLE MISSION SPECIFICATIONS
Delta V Budget = Delta V There + Delta V Back
Delta V Budget = 4.276 + 4.404
Delta V Budget = 8.680 kps
PUT
20–day PUT mission duration
Payload There = LV Down Payload + LV Inert Mass + LV Propellant Requirement
Payload There = 3257 + 2850 + 13071
Payload There = 19,179 kg
Payload Back = 0 kg
Propellant Requirement = Propellant There + Propellant Back
Propellant Requirement = 63318 + 13391
Propellant Requirement = 76,708 kg
Propellant Requirement = 84.98% full
FETCH
7–day FETCH mission duration
Payload There = 0 kg
Payload Back = LV Up Payload + LV Inert Mass
Payload Back = 7843 + 2850
Payload Back = 10,693 kg
Propellant Requirement = Propellant There + Propellant Back
Propellant Requirement = 59790 + 30472
Propellant Requirement = 90,261 kg
Propellant Requirement = 100.00% full
TOTAL
The amount of propellant needed for each sortie is:
Total Propellant = CV Put + CV Fetch + LV
Total Propellant = 76708 + 90261 + 13071
Total Propellant = 180,040 kg
Total Propellant = 9.973 OV Refills
It therefore costs us the equivalent of 10 refills to bring back 4,586 kg of pay dirt.
We plan to fly four lunar landing missions altogether, bringing back a total mass of 18,344 kg of lunar diamonds. At an average price of $4,600 per carat, the load will be equivalent to $23,000,000 per kilogram, so our total haul should be a whopping $421,912,000,000 USD.
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The more interesting question is: where on the Moon should our four landing sites be located? We propose places that will be historic in nature, so we can increase the price of our lunar diamonds.
LANDING SITE #1
The most breathtaking location for our first sortie to the Moon would be Tranquility Base. We would of course land far enough away so as to not disturb the sacred site with our rocket exhaust. Collecting random samples of lunar material here would certainly make the lunar diamonds much more attractive to collectors.
LANDING SITE #2
We will next land at a place even NASA could not go: the lunar Far Side. We would prefer a plain similar to Tranquility Base. The L2 TDRS satellite will provide constant communications with Earth. Lunar diamonds collected at this location will be almost as precious as from our first landing site.
LANDING SITE #3
We will return to the well that is Tranquility Base for another load from that location.
LANDING SITE #4
We need to scout the site of our future lunar base, so that will be our final landing of this phase of operations. By this time, we will have chosen the location for our permanent base.
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