Challenges of robotic space exploration
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robotic space exploration challenge flight softwar↗
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NASA's M and S Accreditation Process Plan and Specification for Space Exploration
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) is implementing a management approach for modeling and simulation (M&S) that will provide decision-makers information on the model's fidelity, credibility, and quality. This information will allow the decision-maker to understand the risks involved in using a model's results in the decision-making process. This presentation will discuss NASA's overall approach to achieving formal accreditation of its models or simulations supporting space exploration. The development of a formal Accreditation Plan is a key component in the preliminary activities for modeling and simulation (M&S) assessment. This presentation will describe NASA's process for identifying risks associated with M&S use and the associated M&S assessments that will dictate the level of data certification and M&S verification and validation (V&V) activities required to support the decision-making process. The M&S Accreditation Plan and Report templates for ESMD will also be illustrated.
O'Neil, David↗
An Overview of NASA's IM&S Verification and Validation Process Plan and Specification for Space Exploration
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) is implementing a management approach for modeling and simulation (M&S) that will provide decision-makers information on the model's fidelity, credibility, and quality. This information will allow the decision-maker to understand the risks involved in using a model's results in the decision-making process. This presentation will discuss NASA's approach for verification and validation (V&V) of its models or simulations supporting space exploration. This presentation will describe NASA's V&V process and the associated M&S verification and validation (V&V) activities required to support the decision-making process. The M&S V&V Plan and V&V Report templates for ESMD will also be illustrated.
Gravitz, Robert M.↗
Pioneering space exploration: The JSC strategy
The framework that JCS's senior management will use to guide effective decision making to achieve our long-rang goals while soliciting inputs from all levels of JSC is presented. This plan was developed to allow us to meet head-on the responsibilities and challenges we have today while assuring that we are well prepared to meet the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow. The JSC strategy is closely aligned with the overall strategic direction currently being defined by NASA. One of our major goals was to keep our plan and process tightly focused but flexible enough so that as our national interests in space exploration evolve, so can JSC.
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Clothes Cleaning Research for Space Exploration
As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars, there is an increased need to find effective and sustainable laundry solutions that are compatible with space travel and reduce the need for clothing resupply. Research and development to overcome resource constraints in space can lead to new products and practices on Earth. This paper describes a collaboration between NASA and Procter & Gamble (P&G) to advance their individual goals as well as provide additional benefits to humanity through more sustainable use of resources. In particular, the two organizations have been working together since August 2020 to advance state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly laundry solutions. Both traditional and novel approaches are being considered and held up against strict resource constraints that may exist in space missions or on Earth in the future. The results of this work are expected to contribute to NASA’s strategic goal of extending human presence deeper into space and to the Moon for sustainable long-term exploration and utilization. Likewise, the collaboration will advance one of P&G’s 2030 corporate sustainability goals by promoting water savings among its 5 billion consumers.
laundry↗
Spaceflight Food System Impacts to Nutritional Adequacy, Health, Performance, and Resources in Space Exploration
Despite high physical standards and training protocols, physiological and behavioral decrements have been documented in astronauts on both short (1-2 weeks) and long (6+ month) missions in spaceflight, including dysregulation of the immune system, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal deconditioning, ophthalmic changes, weight loss, and increased stress and fatigue. Optimizing food and nutrition intakes are key underpinnings for the proper function and performance of all physiological systems and the resulting physical and behavioral health and performance outcomes of astronauts. Much has been learned about the role of nutrition in human health on Earth over the past hundred years, from the identity and role of specific vitamins to the importance of the quantities of some nutrients to immune function. The requirements for providing adequate nutrition to astronauts seem obvious. However, providing a safe, reliable, and nutritious food system for space exploration missions remains a challenge. In fact, food is one of the greatest resource and logistical challenges, which is part of why it remains a “red” risk for Mars missions.
Grace L Douglas↗
Evaluation of Advanced Composite Structures Technologies for Application to NASA's Vision for Space Exploration
AS&M performed a broad assessment survey and study to establish the potential composite materials and structures applications and benefits to the Constellation Program Elements. Trade studies were performed on selected elements to determine the potential weight or performance payoff from use of composites. Weight predictions were made for liquid hydrogen and oxygen tanks, interstage cylindrical shell, lunar surface access module, ascent module liquid methane tank, and lunar surface manipulator. A key part of this study was the evaluation of 88 different composite technologies to establish their criticality to applications for the Constellation Program. The overall outcome of this study shows that composites are viable structural materials which offer from 20% to 40% weight savings for many of the structural components that make up the Major Elements of the Constellation Program. NASA investment in advancing composite technologies for space structural applications is an investment in America's Space Exploration Program.
Tenney, Darrel R.↗
Risk management for the Space Exploration Initiative
Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) is a quantitative engineering process that provides the analytic structure and decision-making framework for total programmatic risk management. Ideally, it is initiated in the conceptual design phase and used throughout the program life cycle. Although PRA was developed for assessment of safety, reliability, and availability risk, it has far greater application. Throughout the design phase, PRA can guide trade-off studies among system performance, safety, reliability, cost, and schedule. These studies are based on the assessment of the risk of meeting each parameter goal, with full consideration of the uncertainties. Quantitative trade-off studies are essential, but without full identification, propagation, and display of uncertainties, poor decisions may result. PRA also can focus attention on risk drivers in situations where risk is too high. For example, if safety risk is unacceptable, the PRA prioritizes the risk contributors to guide the use of resources for risk mitigation. PRA is used in the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) Program. To meet the stringent requirements of the SEI mission, within strict budgetary constraints, the PRA structure supports informed and traceable decision-making. This paper briefly describes the SEI PRA process.
Buchbinder, Ben↗
Building Transatlantic Partnerships in Space Exploration The MPCV-SM Study
Following the approval of the ESA ISS Exploitation Declaration for the ISS lifetime at the ESA Council Meeting in March 2011, ESA decided to partially offset the European obligations deriving from the extension of the ISS Programme until end 2020 with different means than ATVs, following the ATV-5 mission foreseen in mid 2014. The envisioned approach is based on a barter element(s) that would generate cost avoidance on the NASA side. NASA and ESA considered a number of Barter options, and concluded that the provision by ESA of the Service Module for the NASA Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) was the barter with the most interest. A joint ESA - NASA working group was established to assess the feasibility of Europe developing this Module based on ATV heritage. The working group was supported by European and US industry namely Astrium, TAS-I and Lockheed-Martin. This paper gives an overview of the results of the on-going study as well as its perspective utilisation for the global space exploration endeavour.
Wilde Detlef↗
The Necessity of Functional Analysis for Space Exploration Programs
As NASA moves toward expanded commercial spaceflight within its human exploration capability, there is increased emphasis on how to allocate responsibilities between government and commercial organizations to achieve coordinated program objectives. The practice of program-level functional analysis offers an opportunity for improved understanding of collaborative functions among heterogeneous partners. Functional analysis is contrasted with the physical analysis more commonly done at the program level, and is shown to provide theoretical performance, risk, and safety advantages beneficial to a government-commercial partnership. Performance advantages include faster convergence to acceptable system solutions; discovery of superior solutions with higher commonality, greater simplicity and greater parallelism by substituting functional for physical redundancy to achieve robustness and safety goals; and greater organizational cohesion around program objectives. Risk advantages include avoidance of rework by revelation of some kinds of architectural and contractual mismatches before systems are specified, designed, constructed, or integrated; avoidance of cost and schedule growth by more complete and precise specifications of cost and schedule estimates; and higher likelihood of successful integration on the first try. Safety advantages include effective delineation of must-work and must-not-work functions for integrated hazard analysis, the ability to formally demonstrate completeness of safety analyses, and provably correct logic for certification of flight readiness. The key mechanism for realizing these benefits is the development of an inter-functional architecture at the program level, which reveals relationships between top-level system requirements that would otherwise be invisible using only a physical architecture. This paper describes the advantages and pitfalls of functional analysis as a means of coordinating the actions of large heterogeneous organizations for space exploration programs.
program management↗
United States Human Access to Space, Exploration of the Moon and Preparation for Mars Exploration
In the past, men like Leonardo da Vinci and Jules Verne imagined the future and envisioned fantastic inventions such as winged flying machines, submarines, and parachutes, and posited human adventures like transoceanic flight and journeys to the Moon. Today, many of their ideas are reality and form the basis for our modern world. While individual visionaries like da Vinci and Verne are remembered for the accuracy of their predictions, today entire nations are involved in the process of envisioning and defining the future development of mankind, both on and beyond the Earth itself. Recently, Russian, European, and Chinese teams have all announced plans for developing their own next generation human space vehicles. The Chinese have announced their intention to conduct human lunar exploration, and have flown three crewed space missions since 2003, including a flight with three crew members to test their extravehicular (spacewalking) capabilities in September 2008. Very soon, the prestige, economic development, scientific discovery, and strategic security advantage historically associated with leadership in space exploration and exploitation may no longer be the undisputed province of the United States. Much like the sponsors of the seafaring explorers of da Vinci's age, we are motivated by the opportunity to obtain new knowledge and new resources for the growth and development of our own civilization. NASA's new Constellation Program, established in 2005, is tasked with maintaining the United States leadership in space, exploring the Moon, creating a sustained human lunar presence, and eventually extending human operations to Mars and beyond. Through 2008, the Constellation Program developed a full set of detailed program requirements and is now completing the preliminary design phase for the new Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle, and the associated infrastructure necessary for humans to explore the Moon. Component testing is well underway, and integrated flight testing will begin in 2009. This white paper summarizes 3 years of Constellation Program progress and accomplishments, and it describes the foundation set for human lunar return in 2020.
Rhatigan, Jennifer L.↗
Advanced Computing Technologies for Future Deep Space Exploration Missions
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Deep Space Exploration Computing Technologies↗
The opening decade of space exploration - The United States program.
U.S. space research program and achievements, describing practical aspects
Pickering, W. H.↗
Semi-Autonomous Rodent Habitat for Deep Space Exploration
NASA has flown animals to space as part of trailblazing missions and to understand the biological responses to spaceflight. Mice traveled in the Lunar Module with the Apollo 17 astronauts and now mice are frequent research subjects in LEO on the ISS. The ISS rodent missions have focused on unravelling biological mechanisms, better understanding risks to astronaut health, and testing candidate countermeasures. A critical barrier for longer-duration animal missions is the need for humans-in-the-loop to perform animal husbandry and perform routine tasks during a mission. Using autonomous or telerobotic systems to alleviate some of these tasks would enable longer-duration missions to be performed at the Deep Space Gateway. Rodent missions performed using the Gateway as a platform could address a number of critical risks identified by the Human Research Program (HRP), as well as Space Biology Program questions identified by NRC Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, (2011). HRP risk areas of potentially greatest relevance that the Gateway rodent missions can address include those related to visual impairment (VIIP) and radiation risks to central nervous system, cardiovascular disease, as well as countermeasure testing. Space Biology focus areas addressed by the Gateway rodent missions include mechanisms and combinatorial effects of microgravity and radiation. The objectives of the work proposed here are to 1) develop capability for semi-autonomous rodent research in cis-lunar orbit, 2) conduct key experiments for testing countermeasures against low gravity and space radiation. The hardware and operations system developed will enable experiments at least one month in duration, which potentially could be extended to one year in duration. To gain novel insights into the health risks to crew of deep space travel (i.e., exposure to space radiation), results obtained from Gateway flight rodents can be compared to ground control groups and separate groups of mice exposed to simulated Galactic Cosmic Radiation (at the NASA Space Radiation Lab). Results can then be compared to identical experiments conducted on the ISS. Together results from Gateway, ground-based, and ISS rodent experiments will provide novel insight into the effects of space radiation.
deep space gateway↗
Mass Reduction: The Weighty Challenge for Exploration Space Flight
Meeting nutritional and acceptability requirements is critical for the food system for an exploration class space mission. However, this must be achieved within the constraints of available resources such as water, crew time, stowage volume, launch mass and power availability. Due to resource constraints, exploration class missions are not expected to have refrigerators or freezers for food storage, and current per person food mass must be reduced to improve mission feasibility. The Packaged Food Mass Reduction Trade Study (Stoklosa, 2009) concluded that the mass of the current space food system can be effectively reduced by decreasing water content of certain foods and offering nutrient dense substitutes, such as meal replacement bars and beverages. Target nutrient ranges were established based on the nutritional content of the current breakfast and lunch meals in the ISS standard menu. A market survey of available commercial products produced no viable options for meal replacement bar or beverage products. New prototypes for both categories were formulated to meet target nutrient ranges. Samples of prototype products were packaged in high barrier packaging currently used for ISS and underwent an accelerated shelf life study at 31 degC and 41 degC (50% RH) for 24 weeks. Samples were assessed at the following time points: Initial, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks. Testing at each time point included the following: color, texture, water activity, acceptability, and hexanal analysis (for food bars only). Proof of concept prototypes demonstrated that meal replacement food bars and beverages can deliver a comparable macronutrient profile while reducing the overall mass when compared to the ISS Standard Menu. Future work suggestions for meal replacement bars: Reformulation to include ingredients that reduce hardness and reduce browning to increase shelf life. Micronutrient analysis and potential fortification. Sensory evaluation studies including satiety tests and menu fatigue. Water Intake Analysis: The water in thermostabilized foods is considered as part of a crewmember's daily water intake. Extensive meal replacement would require further analyses to determine if additional water provisioning would be required per crewmember negating some of the mass savings.
Kloeris, Vickie L.↗
Risk based decision tool for space exploration missions
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risk prototype space exploration proposals↗