Mercuryplane—A Spacecraft for Regular Delivery of Astronauts onto the Mercury

Abstract

The project of “Mercuryplane”—a spacecraft for regular delivery of astronauts to the planet Mercury is considered. In the first stage of the flight, with the help of a carrier rocket, equipped with a chemical rocket engine, astronauts are delivered to the international space station ISS. A design consisting of an interorbital module and a takeoff-landing capsule has been developed to deliver astronauts from Earth’s orbit into Mercury’s orbit. The interorbital module is an electric rocket equipped with 8 superconductor magnetoplasma electric engines MARS type. The electric power supply for the engines is provided by a collapsible solar panel made of gallium arsenide. The design of the takeoff-landing capsule has been developed for landing and take-off from the surface of Mercury. A device has been developed to refuel in Earth’s orbit the electric rocket engines with nitrogen, and chemical rocket engines with oxygen and hydrogen, which are in liquid state The developed spacecraft is able to regularly deliver three astronauts from Earth orbit to the surface of Mercury within 35 days.