Some Staging Locations Considered for Lunar Pre - Positioning

This paper gauges the viability of using several different staging locations for a manned mission to the lu nar South Pole. The staging locations examined include: Low -Earth Orbit (LEO), Highly Elliptical Earth Orbit (HEEO), Earth -Moon Libration Point 1 (EML1), Highly Elliptical Lunar Orbit (HELO), and Low Lunar Orbit (LLO). The choice of a staging location im pacts the safety, cost, and extensibility of a sustained lunar exploration eff ort. Although the results presented pertain to a specific baseline mission, the ensuing discussions present generalized result s that can be applied towards achieving NASA’s visi on of lunar exploration.