Since the initiation of the United States (US) Artemis program to send astronauts back to the lunar surface, create a sustainable human lunar exploration program, and lead the first human exploration mission to the Mars surface, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) has performed a series of initiatives to better plan, focus, and coordinate technology and flight development activities. This started with the Strategic Technology Architecture Roundtable (STAR) process that created an integrated framework and process to allow capabilities and technologies to be linked and assessed, gaps to be identified, specifications and metrics to be established, and to provide a means to prioritize and implement technology development and missions. A critical part of the STAR effort was the establishment of a Strategic Framework that organizes all work under four major Thrusts (Go, Land, Live, and Explore). In this framework, all STMD work can be categorized and linked between Capability Areas, and technology gaps can be identified and addressed. To further guide development of ISRU technologies and systems on the ground and demonstrate these capabilities on the Moon and Mars, STMD created and released the ISRU Envisioned Future Priorities (EFP) strategic plan in 2022 and updated it in 2023. While lunar ISRU technology development had already started, these publicly released strategic plans have been used to guide and prioritize technology development and assess the progress in achieving the vision. Since the release of the ISRU EFPs, there have been several significant activities/events that have occurred with respect to human lunar and Mars exploration that requires NASA STMD to restructure and reprioritize its organization and work. One has been the release of the Artemis Architecture Definition Document (ADD) Revisions 1 and 2. While these documents included ISRU as a sub-architecture, the ADD focuses primarily on the Human Lunar Return (HLR) and Foundational Exploration (FE) stages of human lunar exploration where ISRU products are not utilized, and the Mars ascent propellant strategy for the initial human Mars mission concept does not utilize ISRU-derived propellants. This has now led to the initiation in 2025 of joint human exploration/STMD studies and tasks to better define what, when, and how ISRU will be incorporated into the Artemis Moon to Mars campaign. The second activity/event has been the effort to reprioritize all STMD work around customer priorities. At the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Spring Meeting in 2024, STMD released the results of the Shortfall Priority Review and Ranking process with the goal of utilizing the results to support future technology development and funding decisions. The establishment, review, and ranking of the 187 STMD Shortfalls has now led to a further focusing of all the Shortfalls into a smaller number of Capability Goals. At the same time, STMD management initiated a reorganization of the mission directorate and its work from an organization centered around Technology Readiness Level (TRL)-based solicitations and programs, to an organization centered around Domains and Capabilities. Finally, NASA and particularly STMD has faced a series of budgetary shortfalls for the last several years, leading to the need to reassess development and flight mission plans. This presentation will provide an overview of these recent activities and how ISRU technology and flight development efforts are being restructured and refocused.


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    Titel :

    Restructuring Development and Implementation of ISRU in NASA’s Artemis Program


    Beteiligte:

    Kongress:

    Luxembourg Space Resources Week ; 2025 ; Luxembourg City, LU


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    20.05.2025


    Medientyp :

    Sonstige


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch





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