“Astronauts on the Moon to Stay by 2024”, the main goal of NASA’s new Artemis Program launched in 2019, poses habitation challenges closely resembling long stays on Mars. Although the Moon is within reach of logistics from Earth, not all things needed by crew to maintain health can be brought from Earth at an affordable cost and reasonable schedule to meet the 2024 milestone of sustainable presence. Requirements for civil engineering activities are becoming more evident in concept analyses of mission scenarios showing a buildup of surface infrastructure and settlements on the lunar landscape. In the case of Mars, for the long stays on the Martian surface consistent with Earth-Mars’ 26-month synodic periods and current propulsion systems, some civil engineering activities are likely required to achieve crew safety metrics prior to crew arrival. “Astronauts on the Moon to Stay” places similar crew safety metrics on the crew as in the case of Mars. Operations on the lunar surface offer a Mars analog site opportunity for preparing equipment, demonstrating critical technologies, and training crew for subsequent Mars missions.
Requirements Development Framework for Lunar In Situ Surface Construction of Infrastructure
17th Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments ; 2021 ; Virtual Conference
Earth and Space 2021 ; 1141-1155
2021-04-15
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch