Review of NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program An Interim Report (2008) / Chapter Skim
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1 Brief Assessments of ETDP Projects
1 Brief Assessments of ETDP Projects
Pages 4-42
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The 22 projects assessed, with a short description of each, are as follows: 01 Structures, Materials, and Mechanisms: Technologies for lightweight vehicle and habitat structures and low-temperature mechanisms 02 Ablative Thermal Protection System for the Crew Exploration Vehicle: 4
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suits 08 High-Performance and Radiation-Hardened Electronics: Radiation-hardened and reconfigurable, high-performance processors and electronics 09 Integrated Systems Health Management: Design, development, operation, and life-cycle management of components, subsystems, vehicles, and other operational systems 10 Autonomy for Operations: Software tools to maximize productivity and minimize workload for mission operations by automating procedures, schedules, and plans 11 Intelligent Software Design: Software tools to produce reliable software 12 Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology: Autonomous, precision landing and hazard avoidance systems 13 Automated Rendezvous and Docking Sensor Technology: Development of sensors and software to rendezvous and dock spacecraft 14 Exploration Life Support: Technologies for atmospheric management, advanced air and water recovery systems, and waste disposal 15 Advanced Environmental Monitoring and Control: Technologies for monitoring and controlling spacecraft and habitat environment 16 Fire Prevention, Detection, and Suppression: Technologies to ensure crew health and safety on exploration missions 5
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The first is to develop lightweight structures for the lunar landers and surface habitats, which may be used in future modes of the crew exploration vehicle (CEV) and crew launch vehicle (CLV)
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Ratings Quality: Yellow Flag Some team members appear to have little or no expertise in their project area. A lack of experience combined with limited interaction with industry can have a serious adverse impact on the quality of work.
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02 ABLATIVE THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM FOR THE CREW EXPLORATION VEHICLE Objective Extremely large heat fluxes are experienced by the CEV during reentry from the Moon or Mars. An ablative heat shield is required for thermal protection.
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Therefore, an entirely different heat shield design may be required for reentry from Mars, and hence the present technology does not really support the full VSE. 03 LUNAR DUST MITIGATION Objective Dust was an issue for the Apollo astronauts and it continues to be an issue for the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs)
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Ratings Quality: Green Flag The Lunar Dust Mitigation project plan has well-developed requirements and an appropriate layout of program elements to achieve a TRL of 5. Requirements from many sources are driving the correct program development to satisfy the goals.
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The PCAD project is nicely focused on established risk areas for each of the three main projects being worked on. The main customers of PCAD are the Lunar Lander Projects Office and the Orion Crew Module Project Office.
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Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration: Green Flag Being able to develop a LOX/CH4 main ascent engine would be a great plus for Mars exploration since it is amenable to in situ resource utilization. The team has also tried to foresee what requirement changes LLPO might present and has tried to develop flexible designs.
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Ratings Quality: Yellow Flag The Cryogenic Fluid Management (CFM) project is spearheaded by a very competent group.
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06 ENERGY STORAGE Objective The objective of the Energy Storage project is to reduce risks associated with the use of lithium batteries, fuel cells, and regenerative fuel cells for the Lunar Lander, lunar surface systems, EVA, and Ares I/V. Major deliverables are rechargeable batteries for lander ascent, EVA, and lunar surface mobility; primary fuel cells for lander descent; and regenerative fuel cells for lunar surface power and surface lunar mobility.
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Effectiveness in Developing and Transitioning: Green Flag for Fuel Cells; Yellow Flag for Batteries The current battery and fuel cell technologies used on EVA and the space shuttle are old technologies, and even technologies available today would provide significant performance benefits. The NASA development plan offers the potential for significant improvements over the state of the art and is on track to deliver the hardware at the needed TRL at the appropriate time for advanced lithium-ion batteries.
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Primary fuel cells are critical for Lunar Lander power. Regenerative fuel cells have been identified as critical storage systems for lunar surface systems.
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Effectiveness in Developing and Transitioning: Green Flag The overall technology development effort for thermal control seemed to be well tied in to the Constellation program. The projects had defined objectives that were driven by Constellation's needs and perceived risks.
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A main goal for the projects is to reduce resources (mass, power, complexity) used by the active thermal control elements on the Orion and Lunar Lander systems.
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This limitation effectively precludes the incorporation of novel electronics concepts, such as redundancy and maintainability strategies, into mission architectures, virtually eliminating any efficiencies that could be built in through more robust electronics. Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration: Green Flag Clearly this work has enormous applicability to lunar outpost and Mars missions.
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Status The project plan contains a good analysis of the state of the art outside NASA and has a wellcharacterized and specific set of objectives. Integration of objectives into operational missions is somewhat ambiguous to the committee.
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The key technologies are reusable building blocks, automation of mission operations functions, and support for human interaction. Current testing opportunities have focused primarily on using data from the International Space Station (ISS)
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There seems to be a strong disconnect or at least a lack of good communication between the ETDP team and the customer, Constellation. Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration: Green Flag The primary objective of providing software tools to maximize productivity and minimize workload for mission operations, if achieved, could provide significant benefit for achieving the VSE.
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The primary customer for the technology is the Lunar Lander Project Office. Status The technology includes hardware and software components.
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The schedule risks appear to be acceptable, and there appear to be no high-risk technology obstacles for the project. Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration: Green Flag Overall, the ALHAT project is well aligned with the needs of the Lunar Lander Project Office.
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The primary customer for the technology is the CEV project, but it is important to the Lunar Lander Vehicle (LLV) as well as future exploration-class activities.
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project is to develop and mature life support system technologies that meet mission requirements approximately 6 years before flight or occupancy of the various elements of the Constellation program such as the Crew Exploration Vehicle (Orion) , Lunar Lander, Lunar Habitat, and the pressurized rovers.
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Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration: Yellow Flag ELS technologies will clearly have major impacts on risk mitigation for long-duration missions such as the lunar outpost and Mars missions. The extensibility of the ELS projects to Mars missions, CONOPS on the surface of the Moon or Mars, and specific planetary protocols regarding matters such as atmospheric pollution were not explained or presented even though "Moon as a Test Bed for Mars" and "Planetary Protection" were listed as benefits of the ELS projects.
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In parallel, the LOCAD team is having discussions with the exploration medical research community and other Constellation projects to further define requirements for technology development. Ratings Quality: Green Flag; LOCAD: Red Flag There is no new science being proposed or discovered with the VCAM; it is an instrumentation project.
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project with the objective of developing "technologies that will ensure crew health and safety on exploration missions by (1) reducing the likelihood of a fire or (2)
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For the Constellation program, the requirement is that Exploration vehicles (e.g., Crew Exploration Vehicle, Lunar Lander, and Outpost) have fire detection and suppression capability.
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It is a pay-as-you-go level of effort activity that serves primarily only one mission: human spaceflight. 17 EXTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITY TECHNOLOGIES Objective The capability for humans to work on the lunar surface is a required component of the Exploration mission architecture.
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During a visit to the EVA Suit Laboratory no new technologies or design concepts were apparent to mitigate the locomotion and mobility issues central to lunar surface exploration missions. No new materials or systems research was presented to address the significant abrasion and dust mitigation problems that will be encountered in the lunar regolith.
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Some are onboard the ISS and some are scheduled to be delivered by the space shuttle or Soyuz up to early 2009. Ratings Quality: Green Flag The ISS research project will support the following test facilities: microgravity science glovebox (on-orbit)
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It should be noted that ETDP project 05, Cryogenic Fluid Management, cannot validate its technology in zero or low gravity due to cost and time constraints, and it may not be able to use results from the ISS experiments to support the Constellation program's development. This is an example of the disconnects or gaps that exist between the ISS research and the ETDP's customers.
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The ISRU technology roadmap is closely linked to NASA's Science Mission Directorate and has a good link to NASA's life support development activities. However, the planning between the Lunar Lander work and the ISRU activities is not currently well coordinated enough.
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NASA has no current plans to fund an ISRU precursor demonstration; a precursor mission is dependent on an opportunity with one of NASA's international partners. Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration: Green Flag The benefits of the ISRU project for both lunar and Mars exploration are well aligned with the goals of the VSE because this technology can dramatically improve the probability of success in meeting the goals for the lunar and Mars missions.
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In addition, the committee is concerned about the potential consequences resulting from setting 2013 as the proposed date of decision. Other ETDP projects such as ISRU, dust mitigation, and cryogenic fluid management state that they would change their tasks if they knew they would have access to 40 kWe rather than the use of two or three modules of 6-10 kWe per module currently envisioned with a photovoltaic system.
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Technologists working to develop ISRU, dust mitigation, and cryogenic fluid management would benefit greatly from the availability of increased electrical power. Obviously, the life support system and science instruments would benefit from more power.
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These types of systems could spin polymers to repair insulation and install anti-chafing at the damage site and similar sites to prevent recurrence. Ratings Quality: Green Flag The various tasks under the Supportability project appear to have high quality in both development path layout and ability of participants to complete the projects.
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Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration: Green Flag The performance benefits from self-sufficiency with respect to maintainability and streamlined logistics will enable cost reductions in implementing both lunar and Mars exploration, and thus this work is well aligned with the VSE. 22 HUMAN-ROBOTIC SYSTEMS/ANALOGS Objective The main effort concentrates on reconfigurable and long-range robot vehicles and supporting technologies.
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. It offers the possibility of transporting the entire lunar operation across the lunar surface, to access significantly more sites of scientific interest.
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TABLE 1-1 Summary of the Committee's Ratings of Each ETDP Project with Regard to Quality, Effectiveness in Developing and Transitioning Technology, and Alignment with the Vision for Space Exploration NOTE: A few projects were given two ratings because of major distinctions between elements within a given project.
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