CERES 计划：核热运输与原位推进剂生产——太阳系物流的基础架构
Project CERES: Nuclear Thermal Transportation and In-Situ Propellant Production A Foundational Architecture for Solar System Logistics
AI总结：
该项目提出以谷神星为枢纽、结合核热推进与原位推进剂生产的可重复使用深空运输架构，通过轨道分析与质量模型验证，能显著降低发射质量并实现定期航班化探索。
AI中文摘要：
CERES 计划提出了一种以矮行星谷神星为中心的可重复使用的深空运输架构，结合核热推进（NTP）与水的原位生产、氢、氧和氨。其首次飞行是一艘探路者飞船，对谷神星进行勘测并返回样本，同时也关乎生命问题：黎明号在那里发现了前生命化学的成分，返回的材料将展示该化学进展到了何种程度。我们利用基于星历的兰伯特分析，调查了2032年至2042年间所有直接的地球-谷神星发射窗口，并在一个参数化质量模型下比较了化学、引力辅助、核电和核热推进飞行器。在这十年间，脉冲需求从10.2公里/秒变化到14.1公里/秒。一个900秒比冲的核热推进级，交付35吨有效载荷，在近地轨道上约需220吨，并且在每个调查的窗口内都能实现；化学推进交付是边缘性的，且对窗口和级数敏感，而核电推进需要多兆瓦级功率才能匹配一至两年的旅行时间。在谷神星进行燃料补给可将地球-谷神星-地球往返任务的发射质量减少61%，而该节点生产的推进剂的比冲决定了谷神星的水是作为货物还是作为燃料箱质量。我们得出结论，谷神星独特地结合了丰富的挥发物、异常低的重力和战略性的主带位置，而核热推进是唯一能同时闭合质量、时间和返回航程的推进类别。它们共同将深空探索从独立的远征转变为按时刻表运行的网络。
英文摘要：
Project CERES proposes a reusable deep-space transportation architecture centered on the dwarf planet Ceres, combining nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) with in-situ production of water, hydrogen, oxygen and ammonia. Its first flight, a Pathfinder that surveys Ceres and returns samples, also bears on the question of life: Dawn found the ingredients of prebiotic chemistry there, and returned material would show just how far that chemistry went. We survey every direct Earth-Ceres opportunity from 2032 through 2042 with ephemeris-based Lambert analysis and compare chemical, gravity-assisted, nuclear-electric and nuclear thermal vehicles under one parametric mass model. Impulsive requirements vary from 10.2 to 14.1 km/s across the decade. A 900 s NTP stage delivering 35 t closes near 220 t in low Earth orbit and does so at every surveyed window; chemical delivery is marginal and sensitive to opportunity and staging, and nuclear-electric propulsion requires multi-megawatt power to match one-to-two-year trip times. Refueling at Ceres reduces the launch mass of an Earth-Ceres-Earth sortie by 61%, and the specific impulse of the propellant the node produces decides whether Ceres water becomes cargo or tanker mass. We conclude that Ceres uniquely combines abundant volatiles, exceptionally low gravity and a strategic Main Belt position, and that nuclear thermal propulsion is the only propulsion class that closes mass, time and the return leg together. Together they convert deep-space exploration from independent expeditions into a network operating on a timetable.
