Space Logistics: Enabling the Ultimate Exploration Frontier
Event details
| Date | 18.01.2011 |
| Hour | 10:30 |
| Speaker | Prof. Olivier L. de Weck, MIT |
| Location |
ELA1
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
I will begin this seminar with an overview of current projects at the MIT Space Systems Laboratory (SSL) and will then rapidly focus on our research in space logistics. As we venture to explore outer space beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the relative safety of the International Space Station (ISS), the lifeline to Earth becomes thinner and longer. Similar to the way in which logistics enabled the exploration of Antarctica in the early 1900s, advanced logistics strategies and technologies will be the enablers of tomorrow’s deep space exploration to the Moon, Mars and other destinations such as Near Earth Objects (NEO). I will first establish what are the key differences and challenges of space logistics compared to those on Earth and will then develop a framework – based on time-expanded transportation networks – for discrete event modeling and simulation of space exploration missions and campaigns. This framework, as embodied in the SpaceNet 2.5 software environment, allows in-depth evaluation and refinement of proposed space exploration missions and campaigns. Mass matrix modeling allows balancing the pre-positioning of cargo, with carry-along and resupply flights as well as the quantification of flight criticality and campaign robustness. The capabilities of SpaceNet are demonstrated with a Moon and a Mars scenario. The notional lunar exploration system is comprised of 32 transports including 8 cargo and 9 crewed landings at an outpost at the Lunar South Pole and several surface excursions to Malapert Crater and Schrodinger Basin. The Mars scenario is a 2033-2038 collaborative human-robotic Mars mission that includes teleoperated hoppers on the surface and human exploration of Phobos and Deimos as an alternative to Mars DRA 5.0. I conclude with some general observations of trends and future opportunities in collaborative human-robotic exploration of space.
Practical information
- General public
- Free