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Supportability Issues and Approaches for Exploration MissionsMaintaining and repairing spacecraft systems hardware to achieve required levels of operational availability during long-duration exploration missions will be challenged by limited resupply opportunities, constraints on the mass and volume available for spares and other maintenance-related provisions, and extended communications times. These factors will force the adoption of new approaches to the integrated logistics support of spacecraft systems hardware. For missions beyond the Moon, all spares, equipment, and supplies must either be prepositioned prior to departure from Earth of human crews or carried with the crews. The mass and volume of spares must be minimized by enabling repair at the lowest hardware levels, imposing commonality and standardization across all mission elements at all hardware levels, and providing the capability to fabricate structural and mechanical spares as required. Long round-trip communications times will require increasing levels of autonomy by the crews for most operations including spacecraft maintenance. Effective implementation of these approaches will only be possible when their need is recognized at the earliest stages of the program, when they are incorporated in operational concepts and programmatic requirements, and when diligence is applied in enforcing these requirements throughout system design in an integrated way across all contractors and suppliers. These approaches will be essential for the success of missions to Mars. Although limited duration lunar missions may be successfully accomplished with more traditional approaches to supportability, those missions will offer an opportunity to refine these concepts, associated technologies, and programmatic implementation methodologies so that they can be most effectively applied to later missions.
Document ID
20060020240
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Watson, J. K.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Ivins, M. S.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Cunningham, R. A.
(NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2006
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Meeting Information
Meeting: 1st Space Exploration Conference
Location: Orlando, FL
Country: United States
Start Date: January 30, 2005
End Date: February 1, 2005
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Funding Number(s)
OTHER: 905-a0-AF
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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