Development of a Microchannel In Situ Propellant Production System

A microchannel-based system is being developed for NASA to produce propellants from atmospheric CO2 on Mars. This system will provide a means of reducing the earth-based launch mass for both sample return and human exploration missions. The atmospheric CO2 will be collected, separated, and compressed with a microchannel thermal swing adsorption system. It will be reacted with hydrogen that has either been electrolyzed from the available subsurface water or brought from earth. Methane and water will be produced by using microchannel Sabatier and Reverse Water Gas Shift reactors, respectively. The water will then separated with a microchannel condenser/phase separator and electrolyzed to produce oxygen and hydrogen. Feed gases will be separated from the products and recycled. The system design requirements will be presented in this paper. The design and fabrication methods of the microchannel CO2 sorption pump, reactors, and phase separators will be described, and the advantages of microchannel architecture will be delineated for each component. Estimates of system mass and volume will also be provided in comparison to conventional hardware. The testing and integration proposed during this project to meet NASA's Technology Readiness Level 5 will also be presented.