Brief Summary
I have 62 years of post-doctoral experience. I am a true generalist. I am 50% scientist and 50% engineer. I have worked on an extremely wide variety of technical problems over the years and I have broad knowledge of things technical. I have a solid grounding in chemistry and physics and did fundamental work in these sciences for many years. In the second half of my career I worked on more applied problems, particularly in space technology and space mission design. I am an expert in requirements, architectures and transportation systems for space missions, with particular emphasis on impact of in situ resource utilization, and water resources. I have surveyed the wide field of global climate change and ice ages and I am familiar with the entire literature of climatology. I am known far and wide in the NASA community for my abilities to plan, organize and lead studies of broad technical systems. My services have been often sought in writing and reviewing major proposals for space ventures. I have written and published 8 books.
From 2015 to 2023 I was a co-investigator on the Mars MOXIE Project documenting progress and analyzing various aspects of the data and operations. In that work, I produced a large number of internal reports and co-authored five papers.
In 2022 I was given the Gan Dunn award by the Cooper Union which "honors an outstanding alumnus for professional achievement."
Education
- B.S. Chemical Engineering, Cooper Union, 1955
- M.S. Chemical Engineering, Princeton, 1956
- Graduate study, California Institute of Technology, 1957
- Ph.D. Chemical Physics, University of California (Berkeley) - January, 1960
Experience
- 2015, co-I on Asteroid study for NIAC
- 2014-2023, Co-I on "MOXIE" NASA ISRU demonstration for 2020 Mars payload - consultant to MIT and JPL
- 2013, JPL Interim Employee to write MOXIE proposal
- 2010-2013, authored major works on climate change and missions to Mars
- 2008-2009 Research Professor, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California
- 2003-2009, JPL Consultant
- 1979-2002, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA; Senior Research Scientist and Division Chief Technologist, Mechanical Systems Engineering and Research Division; Retired February, 2002
- 1969-1981, University of Texas at Dallas:
- 1981 Resigned
- 1979-1981 On Leave of Absence while at JPL
- 1973-1979 Full Professor of Physics and Environmental Engineering
- 1969-1973 Associate Professor of Chemistry and Physics
- 1965-1969, Polytechnic Institute of New York: Associate Professor of Chemistry
- 1959-1965, Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory: Senior Staff Scientist
Notable Achievements
- Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, 1974
- Referee for the Journal of Chemical Physics, the Physical Review, the American Journal of Physics, the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and other journals on over 300 occasions.
- Received Exceptional Service Award from NASA October, 2002
- Associate Editor of the Mars Journal 2006 - present
- Particularly noteworthy: I wrote the "Deep Impact" and "Genesis" JPL mission proposals totalling $500 million.
- Listed in Who's Who in the West:
- Listed in Who's Who in Frontiers of Science and Technology
- Listed in Who's Who in America
- Listed in Men of Achievement
- Listed in International Who's Who of Contemporary Achievement
- Listed in International Who's Who of Professionals
- Listed in Personalities of the Americas
- Listed in Who's Who in Technology Today
- Listed in Who's Who in Technology
- Listed in Who's Who in California
- Listed in Who's Who of Professionals
- Listed in Two Thousand Notable Americans
- Listed in Dictionary of International Biography
- Listed in Strathmore's Who's Who
In-depth summary of a lifetime of work can be seen here.
Highlights of My Work
In the 1960s and 1970s:
I derived and clarified the relationship between classical, semi-classical and quantum calculations of vibrational energy transfer between molecules in molecular collisions.
I produced models for vibrational energy transfer in a variety of molecular collisions.
I developed simple models for electron transfer between atoms and ions in atomic collisions. I showed how symmetric and asymmetric charge transfer processes were related.
I developed a set of simple approximate wave functions for the outer electron of an alkali atom, and I used these to model electron transfer in collisions of alkali atoms with alkali atoms.
I set up a laboratory to measure ionization processes when electron beams passed through gases, and I made fundamental measurements of cross sections for ionization of many atoms and molecules.
With the advent of parallel processing on computers, I created math programs to diagonalize matrices and solve differential equations.
More Recently:
Working as a consultant for the Mars MOXIE Project from 2015 through 2023, I provided continuing documentation of work on the Project, I provided an end-to-end computer model of the end-to-end system, I cataloged the test data and analyzed it, and I provided an analysis of prospects for scaling up to full-scale proportions.
Working with Ralph Ellis and Clive Best, we developed a model for ice ages over the past 2.7 million years and showed how the pacing of ice ages changed across the Mid-Pleistocene transition.
Books Published
Quantum Mechanics by Donald Rapp, 1971
# Hardcover: 672 pages
# Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0030812941
Out of print; Reissued as paperback in 2013 at amazon.com
Statistical Mechanics by Donald Rapp, 1972
# Hardcover: 330 pages
# Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
# Publication Date: March 22, 2012
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0030856531
Out of print; Reissued as paperback in 2012 at amazon.com
This text begins with a consideration of simple Boltzmann statistics, with particular application to the model of systems with two quantum states, and the Einstein and Debye treatments of the specific heats of a metal. After discussion of the Darwin-Fowler calculation of average distributions, the discussion moves on to the Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics of non-localized particles, and then to the classical limit approached by quantized systems in situations such as gas behavior and distributions of electric dipoles. This initial development occupies about the first third of the book. The text next takes up partition and thermodynamic functions of an ideal gas, with discussions of electronic, vibrational, and rotational (including internal rotation) contributions in atomic, diatomic, and polyatomic gases. A separate chapter is devoted to symmetry effects on wave functions and states, and the use of symmetry numbers in evaluating partition functions. This is a topic often glossed over, and frequently mystifying, to students. Chemical equilibrium is next considered, followed by chapters on the perfect quantum gas and imperfect gases where various intermolecular potentials are compared. The treatment of polyatomic molecules in terms of rigid rotations and small bond vibrations is developed, followed by a consideration of the transition state theory of chemical kinetics. The final chapter considers models of the liquid state and liquid-vapor equilibria. Despite its conciseness, this text covers a great deal of interesting ground.
Solar Energy by Donald Rapp, 1981
Human Missions to Mars: Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red Planet by Donald Rapp
# Series: Springer Praxis Books
# Hardcover: 623 pages
# Publisher: Springer; 3rd ed. (2023)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 3319222481
# ISBN-13: 978-3319222486
# Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
A human mission to Mars would be the pinnacle of Solar System exploration, representing not only an inspiring engineering achievement, but also the creation of a new era of expansion of humanity into space. This book extended previous histories of concepts for Mars missions to the latest NASA plans in 2023. Although NASA and others have developed scenarios for how such a mission might be carried out, many of the assumptions were optimistic and many details were left out. Because once embarked to Mars on a long-stay mission, there is no return to Earth for about 2.7 years, every system must be exquisitely reliable.
This book takes a critical view of the requirements for human missions to Mars from an engineering perspective. It discusses in detail all the technologies that need to be developed and demonstrated and examines the full range of elements critical to such missions, including recycling of life support consumables, radiation effects and shielding, aero-assisted orbit insertion and entry descent and landing amongst much else.
Lavishly illustrated, Human Missions to Mars is a highly readable yet realistic view of the possible future of the exploration of the Red Planet. For the first time it brings together a wide range of material currently fragmented in the literature, and presents a cogent argument against the overly-optimistic forecasts promulgated by NASA, the Mars Society and others. At the same time, it presents a plan to establish the technical basis for a credible human mission to Mars.
Assessing Climate Change - Temperatures, Solar Radiation and Heat Balance by Donald Rapp
# Series: Springer Praxis Books - Environmental Sciences
# Hardcover: 816 pages
# Publisher: Springer; 3rd ed. (July 16, 2014)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 3319004549
# ISBN-13: 978-3319004549
# Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 2.1 x 9.6 inches
In Assessing Climate Change Donald Rapp has investigated a large body of scientific data relevant to climate change, approaching each element with necessary (but neutral) scientific skepticism. The chapters of the book attempt to answer a number of essential questions in relation to global warming and climate change. He begins by showing how the earth's climate has varied in the past, discussing ice ages, the Holocene period since the end of the last ice age, particularly during the past 1000 years. He investigates the reliability of "proxies" for historical temperatures and assesses the hockey stick version of global temperatures for the past millennium. To do this effectively he looks carefully at how well near surface temperatures of land and ocean on earth have been monitored during the past 100 years or more, and looks at the utility and significance of a single global average temperature.
Topics such as the variability of the Sun and the Earth's heat balance are discussed in considerable detail. The author also investigates how the current global warming trend compares with past fluctuations in earth's climate and what is the likelihood that the warming trend we are experiencing now is primarily just another in a series of natural climate fluctuations as opposed to a direct result of human activities. A key factor in understanding what may happen in the future is to examine the credibility of the global climate models which claim that greenhouse gasses produce most of the temperature rise of the 20th Century, and forecast much greater impacts in the century ahead.
Finally, the book considers future global energy requirements, fossil fuel usage and carbon dioxide production, public policy relating to global warming, and agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol.
Bubbles, Booms and Busts - The Rise and Fall of Financial Markets by Donald Rapp
# Paperback: 351 pages
# Publisher: Copernicus; 2nd ed. 2015 edition (November 15, 2014)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1493910914
# ISBN-13: 978-1493910915
# Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
This book builds upon previous discussions of booms and busts, particularly those of John Kenneth Galbraith. The first part of the book describes that stages of buildup and collapse of financial manias in terms of human element. These are divided into speculations, bootstraps and swindles. Discussions are provided on the distribution of wealth in the US, the nature of inflation, the role of the Federal Reserve in promoting bubbles, tax history and policies, debt (federal, state, municipal and personal), banks and banking, pension plans, and valuation of common stock.
The book then goes on to describe specific boom/bubble/bust cycles with many examples including the Florida land boom of the 1920s, the bull market of the late 1920s, the depression of the 1930s, the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s, the great bull stock market of 1982 to 1995, the crash of 1987, the dot.com mania, the sub-prime fiasco of 2002-2007, and a number of other bubbles and swindles.
Ice Ages and Interglacials by Donald Rapp
# Series: Springer Praxis Books
# Paperback: 406 pages
# Publisher: Springer; 3rd ed. (2019)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 3642437656
# ISBN-13: 978-3642437656
# Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1 x 9.4 inches
This book studies the history and gives an analysis of extreme climate change on Earth. In order to provide a long-term perspective, the first chapter briefly reviews some of the wild gyrations that occurred in the Earth's climate hundreds of millions of years ago: snowball Earth and hothouse Earth. Coming closer to modern times, the effects of continental drift, particularly the closing of the Isthmus of Panama are believed to have contributed to the advent of ice ages in the past three million years. This first chapter sets the stage for a discussion of ice ages in the geological recent past (i.e. within the last three million years, with an emphasis on the last few hundred thousand years).
The second chapter discusses geological evidence for ice ages - how geologists surmised their existence prior to actual subsurface data that proved the theory. The following two chapters look at ice cores (primarily from Greenland and Antarctica). Chapter 3 discusses how ice core data is processed and Chapter 4 summarizes data obtained from ice cores. Chapter 5 discusses the processing of data obtained from ocean sediments, and summarizes the results, while the following chapter discusses data from other sources, such as "Devil's Cave."
Chapter 7 summarizes the experimental results from Chapters 4, 5, and 6. It provides the foundation for comparison with theories in later chapters. In a perfect world, this data would be totally separate and disconnected from theory. Unfortunately, as the author shows, dating of much of the data was accomplished by "tuning" to the astronomical theory, which introduces circular reasoning.
Chapter 8 provides a brief overview of the various theories that have been devised to "explain" the patterns of alternating ice ages and interglacials that have occurred over the past three million years. This serves as an introduction to the following three chapters which presents the astronomical theory in its various manifestations, compare the astronomical theory with data, and then compare other theories with data. Finally, Chapter 12 summarizes what we think we know about ice ages and, more importantly, what we don't know.
The second edition of this book has been completely updated. It studies the history and gives an analysis of extreme climate change on Earth.
The Climate Debate by Donald Rapp
Most published books are one-sided in the climate debate between alarmists and skeptics. My book on the climate debate presents both sides of the debate with considerable technical detail and weighs the supporting evidence. It is found that in general, the data in climatology are very sparse and noisy. Yet climatologists seem willing to draw a dollar's worth of conclusions from a penny's worth of data. The sad truth is that we don't really have good answers to the questions raised in the climate debate. My book shows why this is so. This new edition includes hundreds of references not included in the original version, and the book is expanded by more than 100 pages.
Use of Extraterrestrial Resources for Human Space Missions to Moon or Mars by Donald Rapp
# Series: Springer Praxis Books / Astronautical Engineering
# Hardcover
# Publisher: Springer; 2nd ed. (2018)
# Language: English
This book carries out approximate estimates of the costs of implementing ISRU on the Moon and Mars. It is found that no ISRU process on the Moon has much merit. ISRU on Mars can save a great deal of mass, but there is a significant cost in prospecting for resources and validating ISRU concepts. Mars ISRU might have merit, but not enough data are available to be certain. In addition, this book provides a detailed review of various ISRU technologies. This includes three approaches for Mars ISRU based on processing only the atmosphere: solid oxide electrolysis, reverse water gas shift reaction (RWGS), and absorbing water vapor directly from the atmosphere. It is not clear that any of these technologies are viable although the RWGS seems to have the best chance. An approach for combining hydrogen with the atmospheric resource is chemically very viable, but hydrogen is needed on Mars. This can be approached by bringing hydrogen from Earth or obtaining water from near-surface water deposits in the soil. Bringing hydrogen from Earth is problematic, so mining the regolith to obtain water seems to be the only way to go. This will require a sizable campaign to locate and validate useable water resources. Technologies for lunar ISRU are also reviewed, even though none of them provide significant benefits to near-term lunar missions. These include oxygen from lunar regolith, solar wind volatiles from regolith, and extraction of polar ice from permanently shaded craters. The second edition provides new information on propellant requirements for scent from Mars, which is a critical factor in Mars ISRU. It also provides new information on crew size for human missions to Mars, which also affects ISRU requirements.
"In Situ Resource Utilization on Mars and Moon,"
Chapter in the book Prospective Energy and Material Resources
Editor: Viorel Badescu, Springer-Verlag, 2009.
"Ice Ages and Interglacials"
Chapter in Enyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers
Springer-Verlag, 2011.
List of Publications
- "Molecular Partition Functions in Terms of Local Bond Properties," with H. S. Johnston and D. R. Herschbach*, J. Chem. Phys., 31, 1652, 1959. *Nobel prize winner link paper
- "A Complete Classical Theory of Vibrational Energy Exchange," J. Chem. Phys., 32, 735, 1960. Link
- "The Nitric Oxide-Fluorine Dilute Diffusion Flame," with H. S. Johnston, J. Chem. Phys., 33, 695, 1960. link
- "Large Tunneling Corrections in Chemical Reaction Rates," with H. S. Johnston, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 83, 1, 1961. link
- "Comment on the Calculation of Rate Constants from Transition State Theory," with R. E. Weston, Jr., J. Chem. Phys., 35, 2907, 1962. link
- "Vibrational Energy Exchange in Molecular Collisions Involving Large Transition Probabilities," with T. E. Sharp, J. Chem. Phys., 38, 2641, 1963. link
- "Vibrational-Vibrational Energy Transfer in Resonant and Near Resonant Molecular Collision," with P. E. Golden, J. Chem. Phys., 40, 537, 1964. link
- "Vibrational Energy Exchange in Quantum and Classical Mechanics," J. Chem. Phys., 40, 2813, 1964. link paper
- "Interchange of Vibrational Energy between Molecules in Collisions," J Chem. Phys. 43, 316 (1965).
- "Effects of Approximations on Calculated Excitation Probabilities in Molecular Collisions," with T. E. Sharp, J. Chem. Phys., 43, 1233, 1965. link
- "Vibrational-Vibrational Translational Energy Transfer Between Two Diatomic Molecules," with A. Zelechow and T. Sharp, J. Chem. Phys., 49, 286, 1968. link
- "A Review of the Theory of Energy Transfer," with T. Kassal, Chem. Reviews, 69, 61, 1969. link paper
- "Collinear Collisions of an Atom and Harmonic Oscillator," with F. E. Heidrick and K. R. Wilson, J. Chem. Phys., 54, 3885, 1971. link
- "Effects of an Attractive Potential on the Classical Theory of Vibrational Energy Exchange," with R. E. Turner, J. Chem. Phys., 35, 1076, 1961. link
- "Exact Quantum Mechanical Calculation of Energy Transfer," with T. Kassal, J. Chem. Phys., 48, 5287, 1968. link
- "Interchange of Charge Between Gaseous Molecules," with I. B. Ortenburger, J. Chem. Phys., 33, 1230, 1960. link
- "Ion-Molecule Reactions in the Helium-Hydrogen Systems," with three co-workers, J. Chem. Phys., 34, 343, 1961. link
- "Charge Transfer Between Gaseous Ions and Atoms," with W. E. Francis, J. Chem. Phys., 37, 2631, 1962. link paper
- "Accidentally Resonant Charge Transfer in the Protonosphere," J. Geophys. Res., 68, 1773, 1963. link
- "On the Relation Between Symmetric and Asymmetric Charge Exchange," J. Chem. Phys., 53, 1333, 1970. link
- "Simple Approximate Wave Functions for Alkali Atoms," with Jean Ward, J. Chem. Phys., 54, 2766, 1971. link
- "Wave Functions and Pseudopotential for Alkali Charge Transfer," with C. Chang, J. Chem. Phys., 57, 2766, 1971. link
- "Convergence of the Hydrogenic Expansion in H+, H. Scattering," with D. Dinwiddie, J. Chem. Phys., 57, 4278, 1972. link
- "One Electron Model for Charge Exchange in Ion-Atom Collisions," with D. Storm, J. Chem. Phys., 57, 4278, 1972. link
- "Wave Functions and Pseudopotential for Sodium," with C. Chang, J. Chem. Phys., 58, 2657, 1973. link paper
- "Excitation and Electron Capture in Collisions of He++ with H, " J. Chem. Phys., 58, 2043, 1973. link
- "Excitation and Electron Capture in Li+ - Li Collisions, " J. Chem. Phys., 59, 1266, 1973. link paper
- "Approximate Solution of the Schroedinger Equation by Minimizing the Deviation," with C. Chang, J. Chem. Phys., 59, 972, 1973. link
- "Electron Capture and Excitation in Alkali Ion-Atom Collisions Using an Atomic Eigenfunction Expansion," with C. Chang, J. Chem. Phys., 59, 1276, 1973. link paper
- "The Impact Parameter Method for Proton-Hydrogen Atom Collisions. III. Use of Non-Hydrogenic Expansion Functions," with D. Storm, Phys. Rev., A8, 1784, 1973. link
- "Electron Transfer and Excitation in Collisions of He++ with H, J. Chem. Phys., 61, 3777, 1974. link
- "Variational Bounds on the 1s Charge Exchange Amplitude in Proton-Hydrogen Atom Scattering," with D. Storm, Phys. Re. Letters, 33, 137, 1974. http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v33/i3/p137_1
- "Coupled State Calculations in H+, H Scattering," with D. Dinwiddie, D. Storm and T. E. Sharp, Phys. Rev., A5, 1290, 1972. link
- "Ionization of the Hydrogen Molecule Near Threshold," with D. D. Briglia, Phys. Rev. Letters, 14, 245, 1965; and J. Chem. Phys., 42, 3201, 1965. http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v14/i8/p245_1
- "Large Isotope Effect in Negative Ion Formation in H2, HD, and D2" with T. E. Sharp and D. D. Briglia, Phys. Rev. Letters, 14, 543,1965. paper
- "Cross Sections for Dissociative Ionization of Gases by Electron Impact," with D. D. Briglia and P. E. Golden, J. Chem. Phys., 42, 4081, 1965. link
- "Concerning the Possibility of Competition in Ionization of Molecules by Electron Impact," J. Chem. Phys., 55, 4154, 1971. link
- "Total Cross Sections for Ionization of Gases by Electron Impact," with P. E. Golden, J. Chem. Phys., 43, 1464, 1965. http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1981/A1981LF07100001.pdf link paper
- "Total Cross Sections for Negative Ion Formation in Gases by Electron Impact," with D. D. Briglia, J. Chem. Phys., 43, 1480, 1965 link paper
- "An Electron Cross Section Plotter," with D. D. Briglia, Revs. Sci. Insts., 36, 1259, 1965.
- "On the Dipole Polarizabilities of Alkali Atoms," Indian Journal of Physics, 48, 901, 1974. paper
- "Estimation of the Degree of Advancement of Petroleum Exploration in the United States," Energy Sources, 2, 125, 1975.
- "A Critique of the Nationwide 55 M.P.H. Speed Limit," Energy Sources, 23, 377, 1976.3.
- "The U.S. Energy Situation and Methanol as Fuel," 101 pages, "Proceedings of the 2nd Texas Symposium on Energy," June, 1982.
- "ATU/Fort Hood Solar Total Energy Program - Final Report for April 1975 - September 1976," prepared by D. Rapp and co-workers for ERDA under Contract E-(40-1)-4924.
- "I. Analysis of Insolation Patterns at Fort Worth, Texas," Energy Conversion, 16, 1, 1976.
- "II. Prediction of Insolation at Fort Hood, Texas," Energy Conversion, 17, 31, 1977.
- "III. The Relation Between Normal Incidence Solar Intensity, Total Insolation, and Weather at Fort Hood, Texas," Energy Conversion, 17, 163, 1977.
- "IV. Construction of a Model Year Solar Intensity and Climate," Energy Conversion, 17, 173, 1977.
- "V. Estimation of Availability of Solar Energy," Energy Conversion, 18, 31, 1978.
- "On the Relation Between Global Insolation on Horizontal and Tilted Surfaces," with D. Oxley, Energy Conversion, 18, 39, 1978.
- "Critique on the Solar Data Rehabilitation Procedures Used in Solmet II," Energy Conversion, 19, 101, 1979.
- "Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Stratified Thermocline Storage of Hot Water," with M. Abdoly, Energy Conversion and Management, 22, 275, 1982.
- "A Parallel Householder Tridiagonalization Stratagem Using Scattered Square Decomposition," with Y. Chang, S. Utku and M. Salama, Journal of Parallel Computing, 6, 297-312, 1988. link
- "A Parallel Householder Tridiagonalization Stratagem Using Scattered Row Decomposition," with Y. Chang, S. Utku and M. Salama, published in International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 26, 857-874, 1988.
- "Active Structures for use in Precision Control of Large Optical Systems", with J. L. Fanson and E. H. Anderson, Optical Engineering, 29(11), 1320-1327 (1990).
- Space Interferometry and Large Optics Program Prospectus, JPL Report D-6854, September, 1989.
- "Direct Detection of Extra-Solar Planets", JPL Report D-6835, October, 1989.
- "Direct and Indirect Detection of Extrasolar Planets and Brown Dwarfs", JPL Report, April, 1990.
- "Binary Stars", JPL Report D-8028, January, 1991.
- "Effect of Telescope Temperature and Surface Figure Accuracy on Performance of Conceptual IR and sub-mm Telescopes", JPL Report D-8175, January, 1991.
- "Infrared Astronomy in the Post-SIRTF Era", JPL Report D-8482, May, 1991.
- "Ecological Niches in IR and Sub-MM Astronomy: Sensitivity Comparisons for Proposed Future Observatories", with H. A. Thronson, B. Bailey and T. Hawarden, Publications of the Astronomical Soc. of the Pacific 107, 1099-1118, 1995. link
- "The Edison Radiatively Cooled IR Space Observatory", with many co-authors, Proc. SPIE, Vol. 1945, 13-14 April, 1993; also: "The Edison IR Observatory and the Study of Extra-Solar Planetary Material", with H. A. Thronson, T. G. Hawarden and J. Bally, Astrophysics and Space Science 212: 423-431 (1994). link
- "Sensor Cooling Handbook", JPL Report D-6483, June, 1989.
- "The Dimensional Stability of Materials", JPL Report D-7667, July, 1990.
- "Laminate Theory for Orthotropic Materials", JPL Report D-7747, August, 1990.
- "Laminates Used in the Hubble Space Telescope", JPL Report D-7781, September, 1990.
- "Precision Composite Mirror Panel Development Task - Final report of Four Year Program", JPL Report D-9204, December 20, 1991.
- Donald Rapp, Charles E. Kohlhase, Jr., Brian K. Muirhead, Kenneth L. Atkins, Philip W. Garrison, William G. Breckenridge, Richard H. Stanton, and Lincoln J. Wood, "Astronautics," in Encyclopedia of Applied Physics, Vol. 2, (George L. Trigg, ed.), pp. 25-63, American Institute of Physics, VCH Publishers, New York, 1991. paper
- "Potential for Active Structures Technology to Enable Lightweight Passively Cooled IR Telescopes", JPL Report D-9449, March, 1992.
- "Electrostatic Propulsion Using C60 Molecules", with S. Leifer and W. Saunders, Journal of Power and Propulsion 8, 1297-1300 (1992). link
- Effect of use of C-60 as a Propellant in Ion Thrusters, with S. Leifer, JPL Report D - 10169, October, 1992.
- "Thermal Control", JPL Report D - 9959, July 29, 1992.
- "Dimensional Stability of Materials", NASA Tech Brief NPO-18984, Sept. 9, 1993.
- "The Suess-Urey Mission (Return of Solar Matter to Earth)," with several co-authors, IAA Paper IAA-L0705, 2nd IAA Intl. Conf. on Low Cost Planetary Missions, Johns Hopkins Univ., Maryland, April, 1996. link
- "Prospects and Limitations of Technical Approaches for Ultra Lightweight Space Telescopes," JPL Report D-13975, Sept. 30, 1996.
- Genesis Space Mission Proposal to NASA Discovery Program, 1997 (funded at $220M).
- "OMEGA" MIDEX Proposal, August, 1998.
- Deep Impact Space Mission proposal to NASA Discovery Program, 1999 (funded at $340M).
- KittyHawk Space Mission proposal to NASA Discovery Program, 2001.
- "Adsorption Pump for Acquisition and Compression of Atmospheric CO2 on Mars," with 3 other authors, AIAA 97-2763, 1997.
- "A Review of Mars ISPP Technology," JPL Report D-15223, 1997-8.
- "NASA Technology Blueprint," JPL Publication 03-003, February, 2003.
- "Solar Power on Mars," with other authors, 10-31-2001.
- "Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems Report," with other authors, March, 2001.
- "Solar Cell and Array Technology for Future Missions," with other authors, December, 2003.
- "Mars Ground Penetrating Radar Proposal to Mars Science Laboratory", July, 2004.
- "Assessment of Energy Storage Technology to Enable Future Space Science Missions," with other authors, August, 2004.
- "Preliminary System Analysis of Mars ISRU Alternatives," with other authors, JPL Report D-31341, November, 2004.
- "Solar Energy on Mars, Volume 1. Basics," JPL Report D-31341-1, November, 2004.
- "Solar Energy on Mars, Volume 2, Calculations of Solar Energy on Mars," JPL Report D-31342-2, November, 2004.
- "Accessible Water on Mars," JPL Report D-31343, December, 2004; Revision 5, June 2005, presented at ISDC National meeting.
- "Sublimation Extraction of Mars H2O for Future In-Situ Resource Utilization," Greg S. Mungas, Donald Rapp, Robert W. Easter, Kenneth R. Johnson, and Thomas Wilson, ASCE Conference on Earth and Space 2006: Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environment, 2005.
- "Design Reference Missions for Human Exploration of Mars," with J. Andringa, JPL Report D-31340, January, 2005.
- "Getting To And From The Moon, Mars And Other Bodies," JPL Report, August, 2005.
- "Solar Energy on the Moon," informal JPL report, 2005.
- "Transporting Hydrogen to Mars," informal JPL report, 2005.
- "Fueling Around in Space," informal JPL report, 2006.
- Rocket Science in a Nutshell," (with M. Adler) informal JPL report, 2006.
- "Initial Mass in low Earth orbit," informal JPL report, 2006.
- "Lunar In Situ Resource Utilization," informal JPL report, 2006.
- "Mars Life Support Systems," The Mars Journal, Mars 2, 72-82, 2006; doi:10.1555/mars.2006.0005 http://marsjournal.org/contents/2006/0005/files/rapp_mars_2006_0005.pdf
- "Radiation Effects and Shielding Requirements in Human Missions to the Moon and Mars," The Mars Journal, Mars 2, 46-71, 2006; doi:10.1555/mars.2006.0004 http://marsjournal.org/contents/2006/0004/files/rapp_mars_2006_0004.pdf
- "An Analytical Tool for Tracking and Visualizing the Transfer of Mass at each Stage of Complex Missions," Donald Rapp, David Y. Oh, Robert Easter, Casey Heeg, Erick Sturm, Thomas Wilson, and Ryan Woolley, Space 2006, 19 - 21 September 2006, San Jose, California, AIAA 2006-7254. link
- Solar Power Beamed from Space," Astropolitics 5, 63-86 (2007). link
- "Interfacial Chemistry and Energy at SLAC and Stanford University (ICESS) Center," Stanford University document, 2008.
- "Advanced Energy Solutions," internal JPL document, with S. Surampudi, 2008.
- "Oxyatmoversion of the terrestrial planets, Caltech-JPL document, 2008.
- Adsorption pump for Acquisition and compression of CO2 on Mars" AIAA 97-2763. paper
- Pre-landing plans for Mars Oxygen In-SituResource Utilization Experiment (MXIE) Science Operations, Acta Astronautica 192, 301-313 (2022)
- Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) Space Science Reviews 217:9 (2021)
- Jeffrey A. Hoffman Michael H. Hecht Donald Rapp Joseph J. Hartvigsen David J. Eisenman + 19 authors, Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE)—Preparing for human Mars Exploration, SCIENCE ADVANCES 31 Aug 2022 Vol 8, Issue 35
- Donald Rapp, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, Forrest Meyen, Michael H. Hecht and The MOXIE Team, The Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) on the Mars 2020 Rover, AIAA 2015-4561
- D. Rapp and E. Hinterman, Adapting a Mars ISRU System to the Changing Mars Environment, Space Science and Technology, 17 May 2023 Vol 3 Article ID: 0041
- Vassilis J. Inglezakis, Donald Rapp, Panos Razis and Antonis A. Zorpas, "Chemical Engineering beyond Earth: Astrochemical Engineering in the Space Age," Sustainability 2023, 15, 13227.