Beamed Microwave Energy Propulsion Leveraging Lunar Resources and Dual-Use Infrastructure Systems

The Artemis program aims to establish a permanent and sustainable presence on the Moon, which requires utilizing as many in-situ (local) resources as possible to decrease the need for transporting additional resources from Earth, a costly endeavor. Since launching spacecraft from the Moon – either to return to Earth or depart for further destinations in the solar system such as Mars – is a vital element in any Artemis mission, developing a propulsion system that can make full use of launching from the Moon, i.e., one not reliant on terrestrial supplies, is crucial to its success. Developing a beamed microwave energy propulsion (BMEP) system for use in the lunar environment is proposed to satisfy this requirement and move NASA towards achieving a sustainable presence on the moon for two main reasons. One is BMEP’s ability to employ hydrogen and water vapor as propellant, both of which can produced in-situ owing to the confirmed presence of water ice on the Moon. The other reason is that microwaves have already been proposed for use on the Moon, for sintering lunar regolith to build structures and for water extraction from lunar permafrost. Leveraging dual-use infrastructure eliminates the need to develop any additional in-space infrastructure to beam power, reducing system cost and complexity. The proposed research will focus on implementing BMEP in the lunar environment using the same frequency and power levels as the already proposed microwave source. A water vaporizer will be developed for use onboard a flight vehicle, and simulations will be conducted to estimate thruster performance utilizing hydrogen and water vapor. The system shall also be tested inside of a vacuum chamber to obtain preliminary experimental results. By the conclusion of this project, the concept will mature from TRL < 3 to TRL 3/4, thus advancing space technology related to the Artemis program.

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