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NASA Big Idea Challenge

The Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea challenge is an initiative supporting NASA’s Game Changing Development Program (GCD) efforts to rapidly mature innovative/high impact capabilities and technologies for infusion in a broad array of future NASA missions. The 2017 GCD-sponsored engineering design competition seeks innovative ideas from the academic community for an in-space assembly of spacecraft – particularly tugs, propelled by solar electric propulsion (SEP), that transfer payloads for low earth orbit (LEO) to a lunar distant retrograde orbit (LDRO). Reuse of the SEP tug provides a cost-efficient method of transferring payloads between LEO-to-LDRO, LDRO-to-LEO, and for transit to deep-space locations such as Mars.



UIUC: Team Moonraker

Moonraker

The reusable space tug, named Moonraker, was designed to consist of a command module and cargo module. The command module will include all necessary subsystems for spacecraft operation, including the full solar array, chemical and electrical propulsion systems. The cargo module will consist of a modified version of the Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial vehicle. This allowed the command module to remain in orbit while the cargo module makes the landing/takeoff. More details can be found in the proposal!

View Proposal
The Team
Following the time constraints of the challenge, the UIUC team that I lead had two months to submit a proposal for our designed craft. Our team consisted of six strangers, all in Aerospace of freshman or sophomore level. We quickly developed a good work dynamic and completed the project. As team lead, I was proud by the teams determination, organization and passion for the project and its overall concept.