Lunar Lander Strategies

This paper will summarize the phase one lander conceptual design study that was conducted during the spring of 2006 under the auspices of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), lead by Johnson Space Center's Engineering Directorate in support of the Lunar Lander Preparatory Study (LLPS) as sponsored by the Constellation Program Office (CxPO), Advanced Projects Office (APO). This study was prior to the establishment of the Lunar Lander Altair Project Office at JSC. This study was conducted in two phases. Six NASA teams collaborated on numerous lunar lander concepts in phase one during the spring of 2006, with each team conceptualizing a range of four to six concepts each. At the end of phase one, each team performed additional design analysis of one APO selected concept. This paper will describe the JSC led multi-center phase-one design team efforts and their six lander concepts. The lunar lander conceptual design and analysis was intended to provide an understanding of requirements for human space exploration of the Moon. Recommendations, results, and conclusions in this paper do not reflect NASA policy or programmatic decisions.