Challenges & Strategies for Lunar Habitation Systems Larry Toups Advanced Projects Office Constellation Program October 2006

2 Background  The only planetary surface habitat NASA has ever developed is the 2-person, 3-day duration Lunar Module from the 1960’s-era Apollo Program.  Today’s National Vision for Space Exploration will require safety, performance and operational requirements beyond that of the Lunar Module  Evaluating and comparing a variety of habitat configurations will provide NASA with a cost- effective basis for trades to support lunar and (eventually) Martian habitat design selection. 1960’s

October Background Mission Duration (days) Mercury Voskhod Apollo LEM Vostok Gemini STS Apollo CM Soyuz Skylab ISS Salyut 7 Mir Total Pressurized Volume (m3)/crew Historical Space Habitat Pressurized Volume Planetary habitats will have to address usable floor area as well as volume

October Habitation System  Habitats  Airlocks  Greenhouses  Resupply/Logistics  Pressurized Rover Types of Structure  Preintegrated (modules)  Prefabricated (inflatables)  ISRU Derived

October Habitation Strategic Challenges  Margins and Redundancy Determine crew volume and floor space requirements and acceptable margins; determine habitat system redundancy requirements for crew needs.  Reusability Use of a single habitat by multiple crews over multiple missions.  Modularity Include design solutions that result in connectable modular habitat elements for ease of expansion.  Autonomy Investigate schemes for automated deployment of habitat elements for pre-determination of system health and minimizing crew time required for habitat set-up operations.  Human Presence in Deep Space Investigate habitability systems with respect to current safety requirements, such as radiation shielding, critical systems redundancy, crew medical requirements, etc.  Reconfigurability Investigate use of movable walls, reconfigurable utility delivery schemes, and repositionable equipment and furniture.  Affordable Logistics Pre-Positioning Determine habitat-related logistics needs and logistics storage needs for single and multiple missions.  Access to Surface Targets Investigate short-distance and long-distance habitat surface mobility systems.

October Types of Habitats  Support day stays with reuse and dormancy  Safe-haven radiation protection for extended durations  Closure of Life Support  More required functions and greater duration drive requirements for greater volume  Ex: Volume for “preliminary examination” of samples  Ex: Dedicated IVA volume(s) for cleaning, maintenance, and repair of systems, EVA suits, and possibly rover or components  EVA suit donning, doffing, and storage  Increased medical care for immediate life saving measures and life science using dual purpose medical equipment  More robust dust mitigation including EVA “mudrooms”, greater habitat housekeeping, and maintenance  Interfaces with surface elements, such as ISRU, deployed power and thermal, and cargo resupply  Support 7-10 day stays  Open loop Life Support  Requires maintenance of consumables, such as disinfected water, and safe storage of wastes  Highly constrained living and working volumes  Drives to shared spaces and minimal habitability functions  Ex: Rehydration and warming for food  Minimal medical care and resistive exercise  No planned maintenance, only emergency spares replacement  No other surface elements to physically interface with Sortie Outpost

October Habitat Functional Elements  Structure and Radiation Protection  Power Management and Distribution  Life Support  Thermal Control  Lunar Surface Science and Technology Demonstrations  Communications  Crew Accommodations  Sleep Accommodations  Operations Center  Crew Personal Equipment  Food Storage, Prep, and Consumption  Personal Hygiene  Space Medicine and Health Care System  Adaptation and Countermeasures  Airlock and Alternate Egress System  Stowage, Inventory, and Trash Management  Supportability  General and Task Illumination

October Habitat Interfaces and Functions  Interfaces with nearly every other surface system  Power and External Thermal  Navigation and Communications  ISRU  EVA  Surface Mobility  Logistics/Resupply  Landers (Structure)

October Key Technology Needs: Lunar Exploration  Structure and Radiation Protection  Power Management and Distribution  Life Support  Thermal Control  Lunar Surface Science and Technology Demonstrations  Communications Habitat Functional Elements  Crew Accommodations  Sleep Accommodations  Operations Center  Crew Personal Equipment  Food Storage, Prep, and Consumption  Personal Hygiene  Space Medicine and Health Care System  Adaptation and Countermeasures  Airlock and Alternate Egress System  Stowage, Inventory, and Trash Management  Supportability  General and Task Illumination

October Habitation Operational Challenges Radiation Protection  General Radiation. The Habitat will have to provide general radiation protection against accumulated dosage while living in the Habitat.  Single High Dose Events. The Habitat will have to act as the “safe haven” for high dose radiation events. The requirement could be for as long as 4 days to “shelter in place”.  Dust Mitigation. The Habitat will be required to provide a means to deal with the regolith that will accumulate during surface EVAs.  Maintenance and Repair. The Habitat will be required to provide for maintenance and repair of EVA system hardware. The location for this stowage and the amount of volume required could be a major consideration in internal layout of the Habitat.  EVA Consumable Plug-ins. The Habitat will need to provide a primary plug-in location for EVA consumables. There should also be additional plug-in ports around the perimeter and inside the Habitat (in the event of depressurization). EVA

October Habitation Operational Challenges  Glovebox Interface. The Habitat will need to provide a volume with a glovebox to the exterior for “preliminary examination” of samples.  Interaction with Earth-based Experts. The Habitat will also need to provide an interactive capability for conferencing with scientific experts on Earth. Lunar Surface Science  Dormancy Periods. The Habitat will need to survive during possible dormancy periods when crews might not be present. In some cases, this could be for months at one time. Power

October  Post- Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) work has focused on optimizing the space transportation system Earth-Moon-Earth  Next phases of Constellation Program definition will address surface mission operational concepts and requirements (Sortie, Outpost)  Advanced Project Office will be responsible for formulating the operational concepts and requirements  Habitation Systems will be a key component  Keep in mind - while we will be using our lunar experience as a test-bed for Mars, we need to also use Earth analogs to learn from the experience that already exists in other extreme environments Future Considerations - Habitation

October Thank you!