Terrestrial and exo propellent procured to launch services contract and not attributed to any AO Finance Cap

Terrestrial and exo propellent procured to launch services contract and not attributed to any AO Finance Cap

This is my proposal to the OPAG 2018

Findings

SMD will in the next decadel demonstrate propellent tanker transfer to a science mission spacecraft as a launch service commercially procured

Tanker and service is R&D infusion to the mission outside the mission AO cost caps and the Propellent is commercially procured through NASA launch contracting and is not a part of AO costs caps.

if the above is a step too far consider SMD and other directorates doing a  pathfinder mission outside of any AO and this is a full rehearsal of an SMD mission with a fully refueled kick stage.Propellent transfer to a kick stage in cislunar space is a major part of human and cargo transfer so The human spaceflight directorate would pay a portion of a SMD pathfinder.

Commercial competition between SEP and ACES stages for Cislunar space as a tug is extensible to competitively bided SEP and ACES for solar system transport for deep space science missions

We assume that do to EXO R&D costs and infrastructure that EXO propellent is a bit further down the road then we would like so terrestrial propellent might be what’s offered at first “commercially”