Enabling exploration missions now: Applications of on-orbit staging

Future NASA exploration objectives are difficult to meet using current propulsion architectures and fuel-optimal trajectories. We introduce the concept of On-Orbit Staging and combine it with the idea of pre-positioned fuel and supply depots to increase payload mass and reduce overall cost, schedule, and risk for missions proposed as a part of the NASA Vision for Space Exploration. The On-Orbit Staging concept extends the implementation of ideas originally put forth by Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and Von Braun to address the total mission design. Applying the basic staging concept to all major propulsive (orbit) events and utilizing technological advances in propulsion efficiency and architecture allows us to demonstrate that exploration and science goals can be met more effectively and efficiently. As part of this architecture, we assume the readiness of automated rendezvous, docking/berthing, and assembly technology, all of which will be required for any credible exploration architecture. Primary cost drivers are identified and strategies that utilize On-Orbit Staging to reduce these costs are discussed.