The proposed pump-fed propulsion system has direct applications for the MAV and other sample return missions. The enabling technology also overcomes a generic challenge of providing on-board pressurization at the small-scale, thereby enabling a new generation of liquid bipropellant rocket engines in the 100-5,000lbf thrust class for other NASA applications such as lunar ascent / descent missions (precursor rovers, cargo, etc.), Near-Earth-Object (NEO) missions and outer planet orbit capture and insertion missions.
These could include upper stage propulsion for small commercial launch vehicles; core upper stage propulsion for various DARPA programs; Lunar lander propulsion for commercial entities and orbital insertion engines / apogee kick engines for orbit circularization of commercial satellites.
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