Tradespace Development and Evaluation of Crewed Mars Mission Architectures
Name
galliath-robaire-sm-sdm-2026-thesis.pdf
Size
5.2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ece9302ab4b2de6952c6305befd173e7
Author(s)
Galliath, Robaire
Advisor(s)
Lordos, George
Date Issued
February 2026
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Crewed Mars missions have been proposed for decades, yet most studies focus on single, point designs, limiting the ability to explore the full design space and investigate the long-term costs and benefits of varied mission architectures. This thesis applies the systems engineering method to evaluate 15,084 unique crewed Mars mission architectures, including well-studied concepts and many new ones. Using a parametric model, the performance of each mission architecture is evaluated across 1,279 Earth-Mars trajectories for both short-stay (30-day) and long-stay (>100-day) missions. Design performance is assessed against Initial Mass in Low Earth Orbit (IMLEO) and Total Transit Time (T3), enabling analysis of performance trade-offs across operating scenarios and beyond those typically considered in point design studies. Results indicate that along the cost-benefit frontier between IMLEO and T3, mission performance is determined less by individual technologies and more by coupling effects among propulsion, In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), vehicle configuration, and mission mode decisions. While Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) provides some advantage for high-energy trajectories, the performance of chemical propulsion coupled with ISRU is superior for moderate, favorable trajectories. Additionally, vehicle configuration plays a critical role in leveraging the benefits of ISRU. For example, in multi-mission campaigns, architectures that use ISRU to enable the reuse of pre-deployed assets (especially a landing-ascent vehicle) can reduce per-mission IMLEO more than architectures that use a single integrated vehicle. Over a 25-mission campaign with ISRU propellant production on Mars, an NTP cycler with a reusable Mars lander-ascent vehicle had a per-mission IMLEO of 170–360 tons, compared to 470–490 tons for a Starship-like architecture. These findings quantify the trade-offs of critical design decisions and demonstrate that chemical propulsion remains a competitive option for crewed Mars missions. This work demonstrates the value of design space exploration for Mars mission design, highlights key trade-offs, identifies high-performance architectural patterns, and informs the establishment of high-stakes technology development strategies that support a high flight-rate future and the establishment of a permanent human presence on Mars.
MIT Department
System Design and Management Program.
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This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
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