Apollo: Learning from the past,for the future

This paper shares an interesting and unique case study of knowledge capture by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an ongoing project to recapture and make available the lessons learned from the Apollo lunar landing project so that those working on future projects do not have to “reinvent the wheel”. NASA’s new Constellation program, the successor to the Space Shuttle program, proposes a return to the Moon using a new generation of vehicles. The Orion Crew Vehicle and the Altair Lunar Lander will use hardware, practices, and techniques descended and derived from Apollo, Shuttle, and the International Space Station. However, the new generation of engineers and managers who will be working with Orion and Altair are largely from the decades following Apollo, and are likely not well aware of what was developed in the 1960s. In 2006, a project at NASA’s Johnson Space Center was started to find pertinent Apollo-era documentation and gather it, format it, and present it using modern tools for today’s engineers and managers. This “Apollo Mission Familiarization for Constellation Personnel” project is accessible via the web from any NASA center for those interested in learning answers to the question “how did we do this during Apollo?”     

SinterHab

This project describes a design study for a core module on a Lunar South Pole outpost, constructed by 3D printing technology with the use of in-situ resources and equipped with a bio-regenerative life support system. The module would be a hybrid of deployable (CLASS II) and in-situ built (CLASS III) structures. It would combine deployable membrane structures and pre-integrated rigid elements with a sintered regolith shell for enhanced radiation and micrometeorite shielding. The closed loop ecological system would support a sustainable presence on the Moon with particular focus on research activities. The core module accommodates from four to eight people, and provides laboratories as a test bed for development of new lunar technologies directly in the environment where they will be used. SinterHab also includes an experimental garden for development of new bio-regenerative life support system elements. The project explores these various concepts from an architectural point-of-view particularly, as they constitute the building, construction and interior elements. The construction method for SinterHab is based on 3D printing by sintering of the lunar regolith. Sinterator robotics 3D printing technology proposed by NASA JPL enables construction of future generations of large lunar settlements with little imported material and the use of solar energy. The regolith is processed, placed and sintered by the Sinterator robotics system which combines the NASA ATHLETE and the Chariot remotely controlled rovers. Microwave sintering creates a rigid structure in the form of walls, vaults and other architectural elements. The interior is coated with a layer of inflatable membranes inspired by the TransHab project. The life-support system is mainly bio-regenerative and several parts of the system are intrinsically multifunctional and serve more than one purpose. The plants for food production are also an efficient part of atmosphere revitalization and water treatment. Moreover, the plants will be used as a “winter garden” for psychological and recreational purposes. The water in the revitalization system has a multifunctional use, as radiation shielding in the safe-haven habitat core. The garden module creates an artificial outdoor environment mitigating the notion of confinement on the lunar surface. Fiber optics systems and plasma lamps are used for transmission of natural and artificial light into the interior.     

Meditations on the new space vision: the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars

The Vision for Space Exploration invokes activities on the Moon in preparation for exploration of Mars and also directs International Space Station (ISS) research toward the same goal. Lunar missions will emphasize development of capability and concomitant reduction of risk for future exploration of Mars. Earlier papers identified three critical issues related to the so-called NASA Mars Design Reference Mission (MDRM) to be addressed in the lunar context: (a) safety, health, and performance of the human crew; (b) various modalities of mission operations ranging surface activities to logistics, planning, and navigation; and (c) reliability and maintainability of systems in the planetary environment. In simple terms, lunar expeditions build a résumé that demonstrates the ability to design, construct, and operate an enterprise such as the MDRM with an expectation of mission success. We can evolve from Apollo-like missions to ones that resemble the complexity and duration of the MDRM. Investment in lunar resource utilization technologies falls naturally into the Vision. NASA must construct an exit strategy from the Moon in the third decade. With a mandate for continuing exploration, it cannot assume responsibility for long-term operation of lunar assets. Therefore, NASA must enter into a partnership with some other entity--governmental, international, or commercial--that can responsibly carry on lunar development past the exploration phase.     

A complexity-based risk assessment of low-cost planetary missions: when is a mission too fast and too cheap?

Under constrained budgets and rigid schedules, NASA and industry have greatly increased their utilization of small satellites to conduct low-cost planetary investigations. Recent failed small planetary science spacecraft such as Mars Polar Lander (MPL) and Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO), and impaired missions such as Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) have fueled the ongoing debate on whether NASA's “Faster, Better, Cheaper” (FBC) approach is working. Several noteworthy failures of earth-orbiting missions have occurred as well including Lewis and the Wide-field Infrared Experiment (WIRE). While recent studies have observed that FBC has resulted in lower costs and shorter development times, these benefits may have been achieved at the expense of lowering probability of success. One question remaining to be answered is when is a mission “too fast and too cheap” that it is prone to failure? This paper assesses NASA FBC missions in terms of a complexity index measured against development time and spacecraft cost. A comparison of relative failure rates of recent planetary and earth-orbiting missions are presented, and conclusions regarding dependence on system complexity are drawn.     

Inflatable composite habitat structures for lunar and mars exploration

Recent advances in materials technology have improved the performance capabilities of inflatable, flexible composite structures, which have increased their potential for use in numerous space applications. Space suits, which are comprised of flexible composite components, are a good example of the successful use of inflatable composite structures in space. Space suits employ inflatables technology to provide a stand alone spacecraft for astronauts during extra-vehicular activity. A natural extension of this application of inflatables technology is in orbital or planetary habitat structures. NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) is currently investigating flexible composite structures deployed via inflation for use as habitats, transfer vehicles and depots for continued exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Inflatable composite structures are being investigated because they offer significant benefits over conventional structures for aerospace applications. Inflatable structures are flexible and can be packaged in smaller and more complex shaped volumes, which result in the selection of smaller launch vehicles which dramatically reduce launch costs. Inflatable composite structures are typically manufactured from materials that have higher strength to weight ratios than conventional systems and are therefore lower in mass. Mass reductions are further realized because of the tailorability of inflatable composite structures, which allow the strength of the system to be concentrated where needed. Flexible composite structures also tend to be more damage tolerant due to their “forgiveness” as compared to rigid mechanical systems. In addition, inflatables have consistently proven to be lower in both development and manufacturing costs.

Several inflatable habitat development programs are discussed with their increasing maturation toward use on a flight mission. Selected development programs being discussed include several NASA Langley Research Center habitat programs that were conducted in the 1960s, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory inflatable space station study, the NASA JSC deployable inflatable Lunar habitat study, and the inflatable Mars TransHab study and test program currently ongoing at NASA JSC. Relevant technology developments made by ILC Dover are also presented.     

Benefits and risks of using electrodynamic tethers to de-orbit spacecraft

By using electrodynamic drag to greatly increase the orbital decay rate, an electrodynamic space tether can remove spent or dysfunctional spacecraft from low Earth orbit (LEO) rapidly and safely. Moreover, the low mass requirements of such tether devices make them highly advantageous compared to conventional rocket-based de-orbit systems. However, a tether system is much more vulnerable to space debris impacts than a typical spacecraft and its design must be proved to be safe up to a certain confidence level before being adopted for potential applications. To assess space debris related concerns, in March 2001 a new task (Action Item 19.1) on the “Potential Benefits and Risks of Using Electrodynamic Tethers for End-of-life De-orbit of LEO Spacecraft” was defined by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). Two tests were proposed to compute the fatal impact rate of meteoroids and orbital debris on space tethers in circular orbits, at different altitudes and inclinations, as a function of the tether diameter to assess the survival probability of an electrodynamic tether system during typical de-orbiting missions. IADC members from three agencies, the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), participated in the study and different computational approaches were specifically developed within the framework of the IADC task. This paper summarizes the content of the IADC AI 19.1 Final Report. In particular, it introduces the potential benefits and risks of using tethers in space, it describes the assumptions made in the study plan, it compares and discusses the results obtained by ASI, JAXA and NASA for the two tests proposed. Some general conclusions and recommendations are finally extrapolated from this massive and intensive piece of research.     

Space station MMOD shielding

This paper describes the International Space Station (ISS) micro-meteoroid orbital debris (MMOD) impact shielding including the requirements for protection as well as technical approaches to meeting the requirements. Current activities in providing MMOD protection for ISS are described, including efforts to augment MMOD protection by adding shields on-orbit. Another activity is to observe MMOD impact damage on ISS elements and returned hardware, and to compare the observed damage with predicted damage using Bumper code risk assessment software. A conclusion of this paper is that ISS will be protected adequately from MMOD impact after completing augmentation of ISS shielding for service module, and after improving MMOD protection for Soyuz and Progress vehicles. Another conclusion is that impact damage observed to the ISS mini-pressurized logistics module matches the distribution of impacts predicted by Bumper code.     

NASA'S Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project

Over the last 5 years, NASA has invested in development and risk-reduction activities for a new generation of planetary landers capable of carrying instruments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface and other airless bodies. The Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project (RLLDP) is jointly implemented by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The RLLDP team has produced mission architecture designs for multiple airless body missions to meet both science and human precursor mission needs. The mission architecture concept studies encompass small, medium, and large landers, with payloads from a few tens of kilograms to over 1000 kg, to the Moon and other airless bodies. To mature these concepts, the project has made significant investments in technology risk reduction in focused subsystems. In addition, many lander technologies and algorithms have been tested and demonstrated in an integrated systems environment using free-flying test articles. These design and testing investments have significantly reduced development risk for airless body landers, thereby reducing overall risk and associated costs for future missions.     

A space exploration strategy that promotes international and commercial participation

NASA has created a plan to implement the Flexible Path strategy, which utilizes a heavy lift launch vehicle to deliver crew and cargo to orbit. In this plan, NASA would develop much of the transportation architecture (launch vehicle, crew capsule, and in-space propulsion), leaving the other in-space elements open to commercial and international partnerships. This paper presents a space exploration strategy that reverses that philosophy, where commercial and international launch vehicles provide launch services. Utilizing a propellant depot to aggregate propellant on orbit, smaller launch vehicles are capable of delivering all of the mass necessary for space exploration. This strategy has benefits to the architecture in terms of cost, schedule, and reliability.     

Revolutionary systems and technologies for missions to the outer planets

The Advanced Deep Space System Development Program is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA and is also called X2000. X2000 is organized to create advanced flight and ground systems for the exploration of the outer planets and beyond; it has been created to develop the engineering elements of flight and ground systems. Payloads will be developed by another team. Each X2000 delivery gets its requirements from a set of planned missions, or “mission customers”.The X2000 First Delivery Project supports missions to the Sun (to 4 solar radii), Europa (looking for a liquid ocean), Mars (in support of several Mars missions including a sample return), a comet (including a sample return), and Pluto followed by a trip into the Kuiper belt. This set of missions leads to some outstanding requirements:

• 1.1. Long-life (10–12 years)
• 2.2. Total Ionizing Dose of 4 Mrad (for a Europa Orbiter)
• 3.3. Average power consumption less than or equal to 150 Watts
• 4.4. Autonomous operations that result in an extreme reduction in operations costs

This paper describes the X2000 first delivery and its technologies following a brief overview of the program.     

Strategic,technological and ethical aspects of establishing colonies on Moon and Mars

With the vast experience gained by Aerospace Community in the last five decades, the natural future course of action will be to expand Space Exploration. Our understanding of Moon is relatively better with a number of unmanned satellite missions carried out by the leading Space Agencies and manned missions to Moon by USA. Also a number of unmanned satellite missions and surface rover missions were carried out to Mars by those Space agencies generating many new details about Mars. While the future exploration efforts by global community will also be centered obviously on Moon and Mars, it is noteworthy that already NASA had declared its plans for establishing a Surface Base on Moon and developing the technical infrastructure required. Surface Bases on Moon and Mars give rise to a number of strategic, technical and ethical issues both in the process of development, and in the process of establishing the bases. The strategic issues related to Moon and Mars Surface Bases will be centered around development of enabling technologies, cost of the missions, and international cooperation. The obvious path for tackling both the technological development and cost issues will be through innovative and new means of international cooperation. International cooperation can take many forms like—all capable players joining a leader, or sharing of tasks at system level, or all players having their independent programmes with agreed common interfaces of the items being taken to and left on the surface of Moon/Mars. Each model has its own unique features. Among the technical issues, the first one is that of the Mission Objectives—why Surface Bases have to be developed and what will be the activity of crew on Surface Bases? Surface Bases have to meet mainly the issues on long term survivability of humans on the Mars/Moon with their specific atmosphere, gravity and surface characteristics. Moon offers excellent advantages for astronomy while posing difficulties with respect to solar power utilization and extreme temperature variations. Hence the technical challenges depend on a number of factors starting from mission requirements. Obviously the most important technical challenge to be addressed will be in the areas of crew safety, crew survivability, adequate provision to overcome contingencies, and in-situ resource utilization. Towards this, new innovations will be developed in areas such as specialized space suits, rovers, power and communication systems, and ascent and descent modules. The biggest ethical issue is whether humankind from Earth is targeting ‘habitation’ or ‘colonization’ of Moon/Mars. The next question will be whether the in-situ resource exploitation will be only for carrying out further missions to other planets from Moon/Mars or for utilization on Earth. The third ethical issue will be the long term impact of pollution on Moon/Mars due to technologies employed for power generation and other logistics on Surfaces. The paper elaborates the views of the authors on the strategic, technical and ethical aspects of establishing Surface Bases and colonies on Moon and Mars. The underlying assumptions and gray areas under each aspect will be explained with the resulting long-term implications.     

A process model of technology innovation in governmental agencies: Insights from NASA’s science directorate

This paper investigates the process through which new technical concepts are matured in the NASA innovation ecosystem. We propose an “epoch–shock” conceptualization as an alternative mental model to the traditional stage–gate view. The epoch–shock model is developed inductively, based on detailed empirical observations of the process, and validated, to the extent possible, through expert review. The paper concludes by illustrating how the new epoch–shock conceptualization could provide a useful basis for rethinking feasible interventions to improve innovation management in the space agency context. Where the more traditional stage–gate model leads to an emphasis on centralized flow control, the epoch–shock model acknowledges the decentralized, probabilistic nature of key interactions and highlights which aspects may be influenced.     

Rethinking public–private space travel

On May 24, 2012 SpaceX's Dragon capsule was launched and in doing so became the first commercially built vehicle to berth with and carry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). It successfully completed its mission and returned to the Pacific Ocean on May 31, 2012.¹ The docking of Dragon represented a historic moment where a commercial enterprise managed to achieve that which had previously only been accomplished by governments. “In the history of spaceflight – only four entities have launched a space capsule into orbit and successfully brought it back to Earth: the United States, Russia, China, and SpaceX”.² While this is a monumental accomplishment for private industry, we cannot ignore the value of public–private partnerships and the role that government played in enabling this incredible achievement.In this paper I will examine how public–private partnerships are enabling the development of the commercial space industry, viewed through the lens of the Rethinking Business Institutional Hybrid Framework put forward by University of Oxford professors Marc Ventresca and Alex Nichols in their Rethinking Business MBA course. I intend to demonstrate that the NASA versus Commercial Space argument is a false dichotomy and that only by working together can both sectors continue to push the boundaries of space travel and exploration. I plan to do this by first discussing how the NASA-SpaceX partnership came about and the reasoning behind it. I will then explore what a public–private partnership (PPP) is, as compared to other government privatization schemes, and explain why Space Act Agreements are significantly different from anything done previously. I will then analyze the impact of these agreements and outline their benefits in order to demonstrate the value they create, especially in areas of mutual value creation and economic development.     

微重力落塔电磁悬吊、释放技术研究

电磁悬吊、释放、提升机构是微重力落塔的一个主要分系统。文章论述了微重力落塔电磁悬吊、释放、提升机构研制的关键技术及难点、电磁释放过程的特性分析以及微重力落塔实际试验的情况。采用万向架悬吊结构和电磁释放过程可调技术解决了落塔微重力试验落舱释放的技术难题,实现了释放过程可调和控制,减少和降低了落舱释放的干扰,保证了落舱的微重力水平。实验结果表明:落舱释放平稳,下落状态无倾斜,完成了电磁释放全过程并安全回收。     

[Interior] Configuration options,habitability and architectural aspects of the transfer habitat module (THM) and the surface habitat on Mars (SHM)/ESA's AURORA human mission to Mars (HMM) study

This paper discusses the findings for [Interior] configuration options, habitability and architectural aspects of a first human spacecraft to Mars.In 2003 the space architecture office LIQUIFER was invited by the European Space Agency's (ESA) AURORA Program committee to consult the scientists and engineers from the European Space and Technology Center (ESTEC) and other European industrial communities with developing the first human mission to Mars, which will take place in 2030, regarding the architectural issues of crewed habitats.The task was to develop an interior configuration for a transfer vehicle (TV) to Mars, especially a transfer habitation module (THM) and a surface habitat module (SHM) on Mars. The total travel time Earth—Mars and back for a crew of six amounts to approximately 900 days. After a 200-day-flight three crewmembers will land on Mars in the Mars excursion vehicle (MEV) and will live and work in the SHM for 30 days. For 500 days before the 200-day journey back the spacecraft continues to circle the Martian orbit for further exploration. The entire mission program is based on our present knowledge of technology. The project was compiled during a constant feedback-design process and trans-disciplinary collaboration sessions in the ESA-ESTEC concurrent design facility.Long-term human space flight sets new spatial conditions and requirements to the design concept. The guidelines were developed from relevant numbers and facts of recognized standards, interviews with astronauts/cosmonauts and from analyses about habitability, sociology, psychology and configuration concepts of earlier space stations in combination with the topics of the individual's perception and relation of space.Result of this study is the development of a prototype concept for the THM and SHM with detailed information and complete plans of the interior configuration, including mass calculations. In addition the study contains a detailed explanation of the development of the Design process including all suggested design and configuration options.     

Reducing biological contamination by a space suited astronaut: Laboratory and field test results from Aouda.X

As part of the “PolAres” research programme, we are investigating techniques to detect and reduce forward contamination of the Mars regolith during human exploration. We report here on the development of a spacesuit simulator-prototype dubbed “Aouda.X,” document the inability of current technology to produce a static charge sufficient to minimize dust transport on the suit, and present preliminary results employing laser induced fluorescence emission (L.I.F.E.) techniques to monitor fluorescent microspherules as biological contamination proxies.     

Science in the national vision for space exploration: objectives and constituencies of the ‘discovery-driven’ paradigm

The NASA/White House Vision for Space Exploration is primarily focused on the development of human and robotic systems that will enable ‘discovery-driven’ investigations in areas important to the scientific community: Mars, the solar system's outer moons, and planets orbiting other stars. Such a portfolio can only be realized if NASA is prepared to target investment at opportunities that are most scientifically compelling. NASA's leaders will have to make decisions in subjective and uncertain environments about the relative long-term value of different kinds of scientific discoveries seen as equally important to different groups. A management paradigm of this kind will imply assessment of heterogeneous priorities and management of interdependent and changing requirements. In order to identify the basis and implications of a ‘discovery-driven’ paradigm, this paper surveys the relationship between the Vision's principles and its programmatic content, the objectives of the Vision's scientific focus areas and their interrelationships, and the public context in which science-focused exploration will proceed.     

Lunar settlements--a socio-economic outlook.

The primary ingredient in a Lunar Settlement Program is the people. At the very high cost that will be required to transport, maintain and supply the people who will staff the Lunar operation, it is important to do everything possible to ensure their continued effectiveness in such an isolated, confined, and barren environment. This paper will attempt to identify the issues involved in providing for effective human performance in Lunar Settlements. The approach to be used will be contextual, and thus will not only examine the facets of the Lunar Settlement itself, but will also look at the organizational elements and the design and development processes used in project management from the point of view of long term success and cost effectiveness. The approach will also attempt to look at the Lunar Settlement "in time" as it is connected to events and experiences as they will evolve from the Space Station to Lunar Settlements. Finally, the approach will be contextual in the range of disciplines considered and their impact on planning, evolution, and activities in the entire process of Lunar Settlement. We will hope that Lunar settlers will be able to work and live as effective team members, and to make that possible, the designers, developers, builders, and managers must also function as a coherent team working together to bring about a common goal.