Historically, space exploration has been the province of governments and major agencies within those governmental entities. Recent advances in the state-of-the-art in many subsystem technology areas and the revealed inadequacies of governments to singlehandedly underwrite major exploration ventures present the potential to expand the venue of space exploration to the commercial sector. Further, major international projects such as the International Space Station have revealed weaknesses in both international financing and management of such projects. Cost overruns are the rule and significant schedule slips and/or failures to deliver have resulted in an enormously costly and delayed program. The exorbitant costs have stymied exploration ventures beyond Earth orbit. There are many potential advantages to a commercial operation including cost, schedule and a distinct customer orientation to services. The objective of this paper is to describe the first phase of a phased strawman commercial lunar base concept which operates as a user facility for governmental entities, corporations and companies. The paper will discuss the power system options and conditions under which such a base can be made to become profitable.


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    Title :

    Power system requirements and concepts for a commercially viable lunar base architecture


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Space technology and applications international forum -1999 ; 1999 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)


    Published in:

    AIP Conference Proceedings ; 458 , 1 ; 1647-1652


    Publication date :

    1999-01-22


    Size :

    6 pages





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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