Armstrong Lunar Outpost - status

cIclops · 2007-11-13 14:34:29

Lunar Habitat Optimization Using Genetic Algorithms (PDF) - March 2007

The Nation’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for a human return to the Moon by 2020 and a later potential human mission to Mars. These future missions are expected to involve much more impressive activities than those of the Apollo program. Some missions may last several months, and others may last up to 600 days. These long-duration surface missions will require large outposts to accommodate living quarters (habitats) as well as indoor laboratory facilities. Transporting the materials required to build the necessary habitats will be costly and dangerous. The greatest impediment to extended human presence on the Moon or Mars is the threat posed by the harsh environments found on their planetary surfaces and on the journey there. The lunar environment is much different than the terrestrial environment; many of the load conditions on the Moon are much more severe.

Does this mean NASA are considering 600 day missions at the Outpost to prepare for Mars expeditions?

Neat example of how genetic algorithms can be used to optimize a trade space.

cIclops · 2007-11-15 08:16:23

Lunar Habitat in Extreme Antarctic Environment Tests - 14 Nov 2007

WASHINGTON - NASA will use the cold, harsh, isolated landscape of Antarctica to test one of its concepts for astronaut housing on the moon. The agency is sending a prototype inflatable habitat to Antarctica to see how it stands up during a year of use.
Agency officials viewed the habitat Wednesday at ILC Dover in Frederica, Del., as it was inflated one last time before being packed and shipped to Antarctica's McMurdo Station. NASA is partnering on the project with the National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va., which manages McMurdo Station, and ILC Dover, the company that manufactured the prototype structure. All three organizations will share data from the 13-month test, which runs from January 2008 to February 2009. An inflatable habitat is one of several concepts being considered for astronaut housing on the moon.
"Testing the inflatable habitat in one of the harshest, most remote sites on Earth gives us the opportunity to see what it would be like to use for lunar exploration," said Paul Lockhart, director of Constellation Systems for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Headquarters, Washington.
NASA's Constellation Program is working to send humans back to the moon by 2020. After initial sorties, the astronauts will set up a lunar outpost for long-duration stays, and they will need a place to live. The agency is developing concepts for habitation modules that provide protection for the astronauts and are easy to transport to the lunar surface.
"To land one pound of supplies on the lunar surface, it'll require us to launch 125 pounds of hardware and fuel to get it there," Lockhart said. "So our habitation concepts have to be lightweight as well as durable. This prototype inflatable habitat can be taken down and redeployed multiple times, and it only takes four crew members a few hours to set up, permitting exploration beyond the initial landing area."
The structure looks something like an inflatable backyard bounce house for children, but it is far more sophisticated. It is insulated and heated, has power and is pressurized. It offers 384 square feet of living space and has, at its highest point, an 8-foot ceiling. During the test period, sensors will allow engineers to monitor the habitat's performance.
The National Science Foundation also is interested in lighter, easier-to-assemble habitats. It currently uses a 50-year-old design known as a Jamesway hut, which is bulky and complex in comparison to the habitat being tested. Modern variations on the Jamesway, although lighter, are still rigid and difficult to ship, with limited insulation. During the test of the new inflatable habitat, the foundation will study improvements in packing, transportation and set up, as well as power consumption and damage tolerance for this newest variation of the concept.

naitsabes · 2007-11-15 08:25:30

what the hell??? why does NASA want to stary a tent camp on the moon? I mean the micrometeorites can penetrate that with no problem....

cIclops · 2007-11-15 09:06:19

On the Moon it may be partially buried it and covered with regolith. The inflated spaces in the outer structure could also be filled with materials that would seal any punctures. This seems to be a test of the overall architecture for supporting exploration work, seeing how it deals with temperatures similar to those expected at the lunar south pole.

naitsabes · 2007-11-15 09:17:50

so I guess that the tent woun't be the "permenet" base than? It'll be taken down and replaced by a solid structure in the not so distent future?

cIclops · 2007-11-15 10:50:16

It's far too early to say, many different designs are being considered and other technologies are under development. Inflatables are only one possibility. The Lunar Architecture is expected to be baselined spring 2009.

Commodore · 2007-11-15 15:49:00

The key to long term, affordable lunar exploration is creating permanent masonry structures out of the local soil, and putting large numbers of these kind of cheap inflatable habs in them. This is best done with robotics.

cIclops · 2007-12-12 14:45:24

Lunar solar array and regenerative fuel cell

Lighting up the Lunar Night with Fuel Cells - 12 Dec 2007

NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is leading an effort to develop systems that could store energy for use during the long, frigid lunar nights. The solution may be a fuel cell system that originally was designed for a high-altitude solar-electric airplane.
In 2005, Electrical Engineer David Bents and his team at Glenn demonstrated the first and only fully closed-loop, regenerative fuel cell ever operated. Though the technology never was implemented on the airplane, Glenn engineers are gleaning valuable information from the project as they design a next-generation regenerative fuel cell for the moon.
How It Works:
A typical hydrogen fuel cell combines hydrogen from a tank and oxygen from the air to produce electricity, leaving water and heat as its only byproducts. A regenerative fuel cell also works in reverse, using electricity to divide the water into hydrogen and oxygen, which are fed back into the fuel cell to produce more electricity.
"What makes our regenerative fuel cell unique is that it's closed loop and completely sealed," Bents said. "Nothing goes in and nothing comes out, other than electrical power and waste heat. The hydrogen, oxygen and product water inside are simply recycled over and over again."
In other words, instead of using oxygen from the air like other regenerative fuel cells, the closed-loop system re-uses the oxygen extracted from the water. That makes it ideal for use on the moon, where there is no oxygen.
"On the moon, you would start with a tank of water. You'd use the solar arrays to make hydrogen and oxygen during the day, then use the hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity during the night when there's no sun," said Bents. "Ideally, if nothing broke and nothing wore out, it could run forever without being refueled."
The system is very similar to a rechargeable battery, but it can store four to six times more energy than a battery of the same weight.

cIclops · 2007-12-14 04:53:47

The House of More Than a Decade of Tomorrows - 10 Dec 2007

"There are a whole set of people out there who say we should be going to Mars first," he says. "Everything we've been working on up to now is perfectly applicable to Mars. There's no lost work there."
For now, though, the mission is to go back to the moon, which some critics argue is merely a repeat of Apollo and the 1960s. But it's so much more, and that more is what drives the architects. "Just to repeat Apollo is not enough," Troutman says. "We have to do more than that. We're going to go back, but this time we're going to stay around and explore."
The architects pick the brains of the Apollo-era engineers, and they listen to pronouncements of futurists who speak of cities on the moon, but their goal is something in between.
Troutman calls it establishing an "outpost."
"It's just a forward base to enhance exploration," he says. "It's a place that you can return to time and time again to facilitate your mission."
In that mission, four people will land on the moon and stay for extended periods, exploring and -- just as important -- getting used to living away from Earth. While the International Space Station has provided some of that education, it's still only a two-day flight from Kennedy Space Center.
But the moon is four days each way, and Mars is a year going and nine months returning, with stays of up to 500 days in between.
"On all of these trips, whether it's to the moon or to Mars or to ... some other solar system, forget Mother Earth," Troutman says. "You can't call her up and have her deliver a pizza. You're on your own, and you have to live with what you bring with you."
Or, in this case, what you might send ahead.
In NASA, it's called in-situ resource utilization, and exploration officials muse about "living off the land." Actually, it's living off the land and what you brought to it.
"One of the things we bring with us every time we bring someone to the moon is a two- or three-story lander full of tanks, materials, residual hydrogen and oxygen and stuff," Troutman says. "That's the first thing we're going to do in in-situ resource utilization. We're going to scavenge the heck out of that thing."
The idea is to design the habitat with interchangeable parts. Each lander then becomes a supply house for the next lander, offering computers and avionics equipment, hydrogen and oxygen, parts and pieces.
"That way," says Troutman, "when something goes out in the habitat, I can go out to the junkyard, pull one out and replace it."
The idea is to have a place to stay for the astronauts set up before they get to the moon.
"The way we're structuring the architecture right now -- and remember, that's at this moment; 10 years from now it might not be like that -- is we're doing something called an integrated cargo pallet," Troutman says. "This pallet has power and communications that are designed to work on the moon. And we're designing it so that it works with any lunar outpost element."
The pallet is taken aloft by an Ares V rocket, and it's taken to the lunar surface by the lander.
"That's something they couldn't do with Apollo," Troutman says. "We have technology that (allows us to) push a button and go land on the moon at a certain spot. It took people to do that with Apollo."
Once the habitat is in place, the astronauts who are propelled aloft by Ares I can land on the moon.
"When they get there, there's a habitat, there's power, there's hot and cold running water, there's a bathroom and stuff," says Troutman. "So all they have to bring is themselves. The Orion crew exploration vehicle and another lander act as an Earth-moon taxi. They take the four-day trip to the moon and they come down and hop out and just go live in this. … And we're not going to send any people to the moon or Mars until we know there's a fully functioning habitat waiting for them."
The living's not easy, but it is adequate.
"The Ares V is up to a 10-meter (cargo) shroud, which is 33 feet (in diameter)," Troutman says. "The back of my house is 60 or 70 feet, so it's half my house long. And you can get almost a two-story-high building in that thing. For four people, that's pretty good living."
It's also a different way of life for the four people than any of their space predecessors have lived. For one thing, they're going to have to be handy around the house, fixing things on the fly. Lessons from the International Space Station have showed them the way.
"One of the things we've learned from space station is that they've spent precious time fixing it," says Troutman, who worked on the station's design. "It's important to consider methods and techniques for repairing and sustaining it. Stuff breaks down, and we've learned a lot of lessons about sustainability and operability that we'll apply to the lunar surface."
In that, NASA's partners on the space station have an example.
"The Russians have a great philosophy," Troutman says. "When something goes wrong, they're generalists. They don't go back to Earth and say, 'come up with a procedure for fixing this.' They try to get it to work first, and that's what our lunar astronauts are going to have to do."
It's all so new, and yet it's not. Though many would believe that the notion of returning to the moon and then going on to Mars is three years old and began with President Bush's "Vision" speech on Jan. 14, 2004. But Troutman reminds that the "S" in NASA is an indicator that exploring space is never far out of the minds of the agency's scientists and engineers.
"(Werner) Von Braun's intent always was to continue on through the moon and to Mars and to spread human society all throughout the solar system and beyond," he says. "It never died after Apollo. It just goes into hibernation at various stages."
So the architects use the work of various study groups, that of Apollo and of missions since. And they try to understand what the future might -- or might not -- hold.

SpaceNut · 2007-12-14 07:37:07

In NASA, it's called in-situ resource utilization, and exploration officials muse about "living off the land." Actually, it's living off the land and what you brought to it.
"One of the things we bring with us every time we bring someone to the moon is a two- or three-story lander full of tanks, materials, residual hydrogen and oxygen and stuff," Troutman says. "That's the first thing we're going to do in in-situ resource utilization. We're going to scavenge the heck out of that thing."
The idea is to design the habitat with interchangeable parts. Each lander then becomes a supply house for the next lander, offering computers and avionics equipment, hydrogen and oxygen, parts and pieces.
"That way," says Troutman, "when something goes out in the habitat, I can go out to the junkyard, pull one out and replace it."

Now that is what I have been saying when it comes to insitu use.

Commodore · 2007-12-14 08:57:57

Everyone who has ever scavenged anything on Earth knows it takes at least two more trips to the hardware store than you planned.

cIclops · 2007-12-14 09:26:53

Yeah But most stuff that's scavenged is not designed to be and it's usually old and damaged. Altair will be almost new after just one flight, with forethought and design, its parts can be used for the Outpost.

Commodore · 2007-12-14 10:29:11

Yeah, but history has shown that the forethought required to do that sort of thing rarely makes it off the ground. We need look no further than the Orion to see how quickly features that would come in very handy in the future are scrapped to save launch weight and/or money.

RedStreak · 2007-12-14 14:05:55

I think all of you are right about all of these things.

Altair will give us the best chance to make a salvageable vehicle since it's going to have cargo capability. Also, considering the Apollo 13 astronauts were able to use a square filter from the LEM for the round ones in the CM...even if it's not a perfect fit it shows you the engineers will find a way around a problem. 8)

Commadore...yeah, good chance we'll have to bring more hardware but still won't hurt to try, especially if we want to be simultainiously exploring, cost-cutting, and realistic.

cIclops · 2007-12-14 14:15:07

Yeah, but history has shown that the forethought required to do that sort of thing rarely makes it off the ground. We need look no further than the Orion to see how quickly features that would come in very handy in the future are scrapped to save launch weight and/or money.

What "handy" features of Orion have been scrapped?

Commodore · 2007-12-14 22:34:45

Yeah, but history has shown that the forethought required to do that sort of thing rarely makes it off the ground. We need look no further than the Orion to see how quickly features that would come in very handy in the future are scrapped to save launch weight and/or money.
What "handy" features of Orion have been scrapped?

The methane/LOX SM went early on. Not critical for moon maybe, but they went all the way back to Apollo era hyperglocs.

I understand that its still very early in the development cycle for Altair, and the engineers have to work with what Congress gives them, but if were not careful we'll have to spend a whole lot more money again down the road.

cIclops · 2007-12-14 23:57:33

First, note that Orion won't be "salvaged" on the Lunar surface, it stays in LLO and returns to Earth.

Second, it is still very early days in the design of Orion's SM, preliminary design only started a few weeks ago. A baseline has to be set for the complex trades on other subsystems but if they have done their work right it should be possible to use LOX/LCH4 (Liquid Methane) later. AFAIK CH4 technology is still unproven in flight systems, so a lot of work has to be done before it can baselined. Gaseous O2/CH4 is being actively worked on right now for Orion's RCS thrusters and Altair may have a LOX/LCH4 ascent engine - see this message in the Altair topic

cIclops · 2007-12-16 03:48:54

Goodyear’s lunar tire

Joint Lunar, Mars project capability could yield "Earthly" rewards

AKRON, Ohio, Dec. 13, 2007 – Goodyear, the innovator of run-flat tire technology on Earth, is working with NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to significantly evolve the technology and take its capabilities to the rest of the universe. Part of a funded program by NASA’s Innovative Partnership Program (IPP) to develop non-pneumatic tires for use first on the moon, and eventually on Mars, the IPP Seed Fund was established to advance key technologies to meet critical needs for NASA’s missions.
Because of the unique atmospheric characteristics of the operational environment, "The basic rubber-pneumatic design used on Earth does not have the same utility on the moon," said NASA Principal Investigator Vivake Asnani. "The challenges associated with creating a lunar tire are further complicated by the fact that there are no lunar roads. Lunar tires need to be designed to develop traction on sandy undulated terrain, in regions that humans have never even seen up close. Plus, the prospect of an immobilizing ‘flat tire’ would be devastating to the mission."
Vivake is a founding member of the Surface Mobility Technology team at GRC that was created in late 2005 in response to the announcement by President Bush in 2004 that the United States would embark on an initiative to further explore the moon and Mars. Vivake said Goodyear was selected to work with GRC because of its experience in previous lunar programs, understanding of vehicle dynamics and state-of-the-art computer modeling capabilities.
Goodyear engineers are used to thinking out-of-the-box in terms of developing entirely new technologies, so thinking "out-of-this-world" was not a stretch, according to Joe Gingo, Goodyear’s executive vice president and chief technical officer. "The mission performance goals for these tires will push known tire technology well beyond its comfort zone," Gingo said, "and I am confident we have the capabilities to do that."
Goodyear Principal Investigator Dave Glemming said the decision to partner with NASA for this initiative was easy. "Not only will the outcome of this project deliver a product that can handle the performance capabilities required for lunar mobility and beyond, we expect the outcome will yield answers to how future non-pneumatic tires may be designed for Earth applications."
The Goodyear team will consist of a cross section of research and tire technology associates at the Akron Technical Center. In the past year Goodyear has been evaluating the Apollo lunar rover wheel, prototype pneumatic tires and non-pneumatic concepts to build a baseline understanding of the mechanics of these wheels and the challenges of the lunar environment.
While a one-year timeline to develop and demonstrate something as novel as a lunar tire seems extremely aggressive, the group is building on technology from the first moon landing, Glemming said. In the 1960s, NASA funded over 10 years of intensive research at Goodyear and General Motors to develop the wire mesh moon tire for the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).
The LRV tire was woven out of piano wire, in order to provide a soft, springy surface to contour to the ground and provide good ride quality. It looks a bit like the skeleton of an Earth tire. This approach worked very well, because each LRV tire was only required to support about 60 pounds of weight (all things weigh 6x less on the moon than on Earth) and be used for a maximum of 75 miles. The new fleet of lunar vehicles will require tires to support about 10 times the weight and last for up to 100 times the distance. A tire that would meet such requirements would also be useful for commercial applications on Earth, Glemming said.

cIclops · 2007-12-17 10:50:30

From ISRU Development & Incorporation Plans (5MB PDF) - November 2007

o O2 Production from Regolith
– 2 MT/yr production rate for surface mission consumables – 1 MT/yr for ECLSS/EVA and 1 MT/yr to make water
– Capability manifested on 6th landed mission (before start of permanent presence)
– Increased production to 10 MT/yr during Outpost operation could also support refueling 2 ascent vehicles per year to further increase payload delivery capability
o In-Situ Water Production
– Scavenge minimum of 55 kg of hydrogen (max. ~252 kg) from each LSAM descent stage after landing and add to in-situ oxygen to make 1 MT/yr of water
– Polar water extraction not evaluated in Lunar Architecture Phase II effort. Not needed unless large scale in-situ propellant (O2 & H2) production is required
o In-Situ Methane Production
– Pyrolysis processing of plastic trash and crew waste with in-situ oxygen can make methane
– Capability supports LSAM Ascent ‘top-off’ in case of leakage, power loss, or increased payload to orbit

Using crew waste and trash to make CH4 - ingenious!

SpaceNut · 2007-12-17 22:09:03

Ya poop power has been talked about and it will make its way to mars as well.

cIclops · 2007-12-19 02:28:25

The Lunar Base: How to Settle the Moon (and Pay for Sleepovers)

A four-time Space Shuttle astronaut explains what life will be like on NASA's four-man outpost come 2020, when the anti-Apollo mission will cast off aboard a new rocket and send explorers to hazardous territory.

Article in Popular Mechanics September 2007 issue..

cIclops · 2007-12-21 02:38:53

From Lunar Communications & Navigation Architecture (PDF 6MB) - 15 Nov 2007

Lots of outline details of the communications network on the lunar surface and its links via two LRS (Lunar Relay Satellites) - LRS also provides GPS like navigation support:

• Lunar comm relay, navigation & timing spacecraft
– 2 LRS in 12 hr frozen elliptical lunar orbit
– 7 year life with fuel for 10 years, Each LRS single fault tolerant
• Atlas 401 or Delta IV Medium: >60% launch margin
– Options exists for dual launch or secondary payloads
• Communications and Navigation Payloads
– 2x100 Mbps high rate links from Surface, 2x25 Mbps low rate from other surface; Fully IP-routed
– 2-way ranging to up to 5 users simultaneously
– 24 hr Store & Forward with 300 GB

Terraformer · 2008-01-04 07:31:58

Are they going to be doing experiments with growing plants and mining there to look for ways a colony could support itself?

cIclops · 2008-01-04 11:35:46

Are they going to be doing experiments with growing plants and mining there to look for ways a colony could support itself?

Yes. All those are on the big list of objectives - see the sections on Life Support & Habitat and the Lunar Resource Utilization.

SpaceNut · 2008-01-16 21:10:10

It was some time ago that the images for the proposed base pieces were presented and the details for there placement to each other lead to speculation that Athlete would be part of the solution. It would seem that there are also other efforts to improve landing acuracy being done by Lunar Relay Satellites which would be of great benefit for mars as well.

NASA designs lunar positioning system for exploration that would enable its Altair Lander to touch down at a Moon base with 1m (3.2ft) accuracy.

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#76 2007-11-13 14:34:29

Re: Armstrong Lunar Outpost - status

#77 2007-11-15 08:16:23

Re: Armstrong Lunar Outpost - status

#78 2007-11-15 08:25:30

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#83 2007-12-12 14:45:24

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#84 2007-12-14 04:53:47

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#85 2007-12-14 07:37:07

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#86 2007-12-14 08:57:57

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#87 2007-12-14 09:26:53

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#89 2007-12-14 14:05:55

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#92 2007-12-14 23:57:33

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#93 2007-12-16 03:48:54

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#94 2007-12-17 10:50:30

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#95 2007-12-17 22:09:03

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#96 2007-12-19 02:28:25

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#97 2007-12-21 02:38:53

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#98 2008-01-04 07:31:58

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#99 2008-01-04 11:35:46

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#100 2008-01-16 21:10:10

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