base scenarios impose the greater operational demands on station due to the frequency of piloted and cargo vehicle launches required to support the base (about six launches per year in the mature operational phase). A lunar piloted vehicle (LPV) concept is presented in Fig. 5 whose modular design permits on-orbit assembly and refurbishment [8]. This vehicle transfers crew, housed within the Apollo-like capsule, between the space station, low-Earth orbit (LEO) and low-lunar orbit (LLO). The crew then transfers to a lunar sortie vehicle in LLO for descent to the lunar surface. The LPV returns to LEO where th aeroshell shown in Fig. 5 allows it to perform an aerobrake maneuver into the Earth’s atmosphere. A space tug (e.g. the orbiting maneuvering vehicle) fetches and returns the LPV to station for servicing. The dry mass of the vehicle is 5635 kg and the propellant tanks have a capacity of 55 500 kg. The LPV-servicing functions performed at station are listed in Table II [9].
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