Preparations for Autonomous Missions to the Moon

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Preparations for Autonomous Missions to the Moon

• Frank E. Hughes
• June 23, 2006
• AIAA Space Ops 2006
• Paper 56010

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Introduction

• Autonomy Definition to be self-sufficient,
  self-determined, or to be independent
• How far from the Earth should a vehicle be before
  it must be self-sufficient?
• Should it be autonomous when it is in the
  vicinity of Mars?
• How about around the Moon?
• Just in Earth orbit?
• Should self-sufficiency be traded away for
  operational challenges?
• Can these future exploration vehicles cut the
  umbilical cord back to Earth and the MCC?
• Should that cord be cut?
• Constellation will deploy new vehicles soon the
  answers are urgently required

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Autonomy Self Sufficiency

• Constellation exploration vehicles look like the
  Apollo spacecraft but they are much more capable
• The vehicles are larger, carry more crew, and
  have greater range and flight durations
• Computational capacity alone will be increased
  millions of times compared to Apollo with its 36k
  machines

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Autonomy Self Sufficiency

• It is more expensive to make a vehicle autonomous
  and independent
• Design decisions tend to move vehicle operations
  back to the the ground
• The increased number of people in the MCC and
  the increased costs are not considered
• Costs move from the development costs to
  operations costs and training costs

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Sailing as an Analog

• These ships will sail deep into space
• The skills, knowledge, and attitudes of the
  occupants will be critical
• What new skills will they need?
• What new knowledge and attitudes must be developed

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Sailing as an Analog

• Early human sailors could not leave the sight of
  land when they traveled
• A few intrepid adventurers started taking short
  cuts across open water areas
• Navigation developed slowly till blue water
  sailing developed because of the
• perfection of the compass
• accurate chronometer
• ability to accurately measure longitude

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Sailing as an Analog

• Navigation was critical but other skills were
  needed to sail on the ocean
• Repairs
• Provisioning
• Nutrition
• Support Systems
• Constellation will have to develop a set of
  skills like these

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Repairs

• Sailing ships required sail makers and carpenters
  among others
• Powered ships today require machinists,
  electronic technicians, and diesel mechanics
  (among others)
• Spacecraft will need repair maintenance personnel
  with special skills we dont have
• Mir personnel never did repair the puncture in
  the Spektr hull after a collision with a Progress

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Provisioning

• Provisioning the ship for a long voyage was a
  well understood problem
• The number of persons times number of days
  planned added to a set of supplies
• Location of things stowed onboard most important
  things before sailing occurred
• The Quartermaster had this job to know where
  things were and to balance the ship

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Provisioning

• Multiple rotating crews and incoming Shuttle and
  Progress vehicles has created an ISS stowage
  crisis
• Additional modules have not been delivered
• ISS is full of poorly marked white stowage bags.
• The airlock is full of bags which have to be
  moved somewhere else before an EVA
• This problem plagued Mir

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Provisioning

• A workable system must be developed for the
  Constellation vehicles
• Constellation vehicles will bring all of the
  needed materials into the lunar sphere until some
  in situ materials become available
• What managerial and technical processes have to
  be developed to control this situation (RFID,
  etc.) to avoid the ISS crisis

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Nutrition

• When ships traveled close to shore, they would
  put into a port when they needed supplies
• On longer voyages they began to encounter
  nutritional problems Scurvy for example
• Keeping the food stored safely and palatable was
  a constant problem
• The sailors diet of hard tack, salt pork, and
  beer or rum was varied by fishing or shooting
  birds
• How will we keep the diet tasty, interesting, and
  nutritionally acceptable on long space flights?

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Provisions
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Nutrition

• Maintaining a food supply for months on the
  vehicle will be a challenge
• Current menus are created from a list of 70
  items and the menu repeats every 7 days so the
  menu can get boring
• Food waste is a continuing problem on the ISS
  solved deorbiting the trash in empty Progress
  vehicles
• Handling waste on a trip to the Moon or while
  living on the surface will create more problems

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Space Food
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Water

• In space today, the astronauts drink water
  provided by Shuttle fuel cells or brought up on
  Progress tankers
• The fuel cells will produce up to two gallons of
  pure and sterile water per hour
• This water for washing, eating and drinking is
  more than needed for 7 crew person so the rest is
  dumped
• Water source for the Constellation vehicles is
  undetermined since no fuel cells will be carried
• The water will have to be tanked on the vehicles

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Water

• Water stored in tanks can become as unpalatable
  today as the water in the old sailing ships
• Antibiotic chemicals that are added to safeguard
  the water usually add unpleasant taste as well
• This is a serious open issue for the future

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Navigation

• Columbus sailors went with him because they
  believed that he could get them back home safely
• Constellation crews will want to know how to get
  home safely despite failures
• They will want to fly a spacecraft with a high
  degree of autonomy
• The vehicle must be able to establish position
  and attitude with respect to external references

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Apollo Navigation

• Apollo was able to navigate back to Earth and
  find its entry corridor successfully without
  communication with the ground
• It could establish an inertial reference and then
  create a state vector from free space navigation
• The crew selected stars and measured the angle
  between the limb of the Moon or Earth and the
  selected star
• The Constellation vehicles must have this
  capability and more

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Apollo Navigation
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Apollo Navigation
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Navigation

• For the Constellation vehicles, an independent
  navigation capability will be mandatory.
• Shuttle is using GPS today will we have a GPS
  equivalent in lunar space?
• Navigation satellites around the Moon and later
  Mars would be extremely useful for each arriving
  or departing spacecraft.

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Systems Redundancy

• New vehicle new questions
• How much redundancy is required?
• How many failures can the system handle?
• How intelligent do the systems have to be?
• Diagnostics built in but makes the system more
  complex?
• Operating procedures will be built into each
  system?
• How much training is needed and how much is
  possible for the crew.

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Systems Redundancy

• These exploration spacecraft will be so distant
  from Earth they have to be able to do everything
  required to survive on their own
• They have to have the ability to do all needed
  operations and services, repair their spacecraft,
  and keep the systems operating over a period
  which can extend for weeks, months, and
  ultimately into years

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Medical Self Sufficiency

• Each Constellation vehicle will need a doctor
• A Crew Medical Officer (trained like an EMT) will
  not be adequate for the missions planned
• We have to decide what level of medical
  intervention will be needed and what is possible

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Medical Self Sufficiency

• ISS (using CMOs) can help since many of these
  problems can be simulated and worked out close to
  the Earth
• This ISS experimentation will decide
• what can be done
• what interventions should be planned
• what equipment will be needed
• We should be able to handle a broken leg or an
  appendix bursting
• What if it is a benign brain tumor compared to an
  aggressive or invasive brain cancer?

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Crew Training Issues

• Crew training for a Moon or Mars missions will be
  daunting
• So many different disciplines that must be
  mastered
• Even with six people, the amount of knowledge is
  still huge
• Based on past vehicles, a quantum jump in
  computer power will cause a similar jump in
  training time required

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Training Hours/Program
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Summary

• Many problems need to be decided between the
  designers of the CEV and other Constellation
  vehicles
• These questions will lead to
• design changes
• shifts in priorities within organizations
• sizeable changes in the training required for the
  crew members

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Summary

• Problem categories faced in this program are
• Social
• Psychological
• Crew Selection
• Training before flight and Training updates
  during flight
• Managerial
• Technical
• System Design
• Selection and Stowage of spares
• In-flight Repair

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Summary

• Decisions will have to be made quickly
• The challenge of mounting a mission far from the
  safe confines of our planet still eludes our
  knowledge base
• We have much to learn about operations in space
• Humans had to develop a set of skills and
  knowledge to leave the shores and sail on the
  blue waters of the Earth
• Humans still have to develop a similar set of
  skills and knowledge to ensure survival in the
  deeper distances of space.