Project CERES: Nuclear Thermal Transportation and In-Situ Propellant Production A Foundational Architecture for Solar System Logistics
Project CERES proposes a reusable deep-space transportation network centered on Ceres using nuclear thermal propulsion and in-situ resource utilization. The architecture leverages Ceres' abundant volatiles to produce propellant, allowing missions to close the mass, time, and return leg together. The Pathfinder mission tests this system by surveying Ceres and returning samples.