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Spacecraft Dormancy Autonomy Analysis for a Crewed Martian Mission

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Spacecraft Dormancy Autonomy Analysis for a Crewed Martian Mission NASA/TM-2018-219965 Spacecraft Dormancy Autonomy Analysis for a Crewed Martian Mission Julia Badger Lead Author, Editor Contributors: Avionics Don Higbee Communications Tim Kennedy, Sharada Vitalpur ECLSS Miriam Sargusingh, Sarah Shull Guidance, Navigation and Control Bill Othon Power Francis J. Davies Propulsion Eric Hurlbert Robotics Julia Badger Software Neil Townsend Spacecraft Emergency Responses Jeff Mauldin, Emily Nelson Structures Kornel Nagy Thermal Katy Hurlbert Vehicle Systems Management Jeremy Frank Crew Perspective Stan Love National Aeronautics and Space Administration July 2018 NASA STI Program ... in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. advancement of aeronautics and space science. The Collected papers from scientific and NASA scientific and technical information (STI) technical conferences, symposia, seminars, program plays a key part in helping NASA maintain or other meetings sponsored or this important role. co-sponsored by NASA. The NASA STI program operates under the SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, auspices of the Agency Chief Information Officer. technical, or historical information from It collects, organizes, provides for archiving, and NASA programs, projects, and missions, disseminates NASA’s STI. The NASA STI often concerned with subjects having program provides access to the NTRS Registered substantial public interest. and its public interface, the NASA Technical Report Server, thus providing one of the largest TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. collections of aeronautical and space science STI in English-language translations of foreign the world. Results are published in both non-NASA scientific and technical material pertinent to channels and by NASA in the NASA STI Report NASA’s mission. Series, which includes the following report types: Specialized services also include organizing TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. Reports of and publishing research results, distributing completed research or a major significant phase specialized research announcements and feeds, of research that present the results of NASA providing information desk and personal search Programs and include extensive data or support, and enabling data exchange services. theoretical analysis. Includes compilations of significant scientific and technical data and For more information about the NASA STI information deemed to be of continuing program, see the following: reference value. NASA counter-part of peer- reviewed formal professional papers but has Access the NASA STI program home page less stringent limitations on manuscript length at http://www.sti.nasa.gov and extent of graphic presentations. E-mail your question to [email protected] TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM. Scientific and technical findings that are preliminary or of Phone the NASA STI Information Desk at specialized interest, e.g., quick release reports, 757-864-9658 working papers, and bibliographies that contain minimal annotation. Does not contain extensive Write to: analysis. NASA STI Information Desk Mail Stop 148 CONTRACTOR REPORT. Scientific and NASA Langley Research Center technical findings by NASA-sponsored Hampton, VA 23681-2199 contractors and grantees. NASA/TM-2018-219965 Spacecraft Dormancy Autonomy Analysis for a Crewed Martian Mission Julia Badger Lead Author, Editor Contributors: Avionics Don Higbee Communications Tim Kennedy, Sharada Vitalpur ECLSS Miriam Sargusingh, Sarah Shull Guidance, Navigation and Control Bill Othon Power Francis J. Davies Propulsion Eric Hurlbert Robotics Julia Badger Software Neil Townsend Spacecraft Emergency Responses Jeff Mauldin, Emily Nelson Structures Kornel Nagy Thermal Katy Hurlbert Vehicle Systems Management Jeremy Frank Crew Perspective Stan Love National Aeronautics and Space Administration July 2018 Available from: NASA STI Program National Technical Information Service Mail Stop 148 5285 Port Royal Road NASA Langley Research Center Springfield, VA 22161 Hampton, VA 23681-2199 This report is also available in electronic form at http://www.sti.nasa.gov/ and http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ Executive Summary Current concepts of operations for human exploration of Mars center on the staged deployment of spacecraft, logistics, and crew. Though most studies focus on the needs for human occupation of the spacecraft and habitats, these resources will spend most of their lifetime unoccupied. As such, it is important to identify the operational state of the unoccupied spacecraft or habitat, as well as to design the systems to enable the appropriate level of autonomy. Key goals for this study include providing a realistic assessment of what “dormancy” entails for human spacecraft, exploring gaps in state-of-the-art for autonomy in human spacecraft design, providing recommendations for investments in autonomous systems technology development, and developing architectural requirements for spacecraft that must be autonomous during dormant operations. The mission that was chosen is based on a crewed mission to Mars. In particular, this study focuses on the time that the spacecraft that carried humans to Mars spends dormant in Martian orbit while the crew carries out a surface mission. Communications constraints are assumed to be severe, with limited bandwidth and limited ability to send commands and receive telemetry. The assumptions made as part of this mission have close parallels with mission scenarios envisioned for dormant cis-lunar habitats that are stepping-stones to Mars missions. As such, the data in this report is expected to be broadly applicable to all dormant deep space human spacecraft. A functional breakdown of operations during dormancy was conducted for twelve spacecraft subsystems. Several “phases” of dormancy were analyzed, include transition operations (moving to or from crewed operations), nominal operations, contingency (emergency) operations, and preventative maintenance. Though “dormancy” is how the uncrewed period is commonly described, most spacecraft subsystems will continue to be active. During transition operations, nearly all spacecraft subsystems will be close to or at full operations during the uncrewed period for some small amount of time. Even during nominal dormancy phase, most subsystems will continue to operate in the same mode. The Environmental Control and Life Support System is an exception, due to the absence of a key component of the system, the humans. Also, the criticality of faults is reduced for many systems during uncrewed phases, which may change failure response times and functions. In addition to the operations analysis, a study of the drivers for autonomy was conducted based on the mission parameters and an assessment of the state of the art. While several autonomy drivers were found, the two that had the most influence on the need for spacecraft autonomy were time to criticality and the reduced situational awareness due to latency and reduced communication bandwidth. Time to criticality is related to time to effect; it is the time between first sign of a problem and that problem critically affecting operations in the absence of human intervention (crew or ground). Time to criticality can be lengthened by system design and the incorporation of autonomous functions. Data is key to spacecraft management; the ground controllers’ timely access to data will shrink rapidly with distance from Earth. Ground control provides significant data analysis in current International Space Station (ISS) operations. In future deep space missions, more data collection, storage, prioritization, processing, and iii analysis will need to happen without humans in the loop. As such, the constraint that will be placed on access to data drives much of the need for autonomy. Several technology gaps based on the autonomy drivers and the dormancy functions required were found. Currently, the crew commonly provides sensing, sampling, and processing, and all ISS sensor data is delivered to the ground where nearly all data analysis happens. Contingency management across many subsystems, particularly leaks and emergencies (failures that currently require hands-on response from crew), currently relies heavily on both the crew and ground control. Data management and the associated situational awareness that data provides will have to be redesigned. An onboard vehicle system manager, capable of cross-vehicle state assessment, fault response, planning, and commanding, is therefore a major need. Several recommendations are discussed in this study. Technology development needs based on the autonomy gap analysis are described. The most impactful technologies across all systems include sensor network design, system health management, planning, verification and validation of autonomous systems, and data analysis for situational awareness. Several trade studies are discussed, and three trades that affect the overall spacecraft architecture are recommended. The first trade centers around the role of robotics in the dormant spacecraft as mobile sensors. Data is hugely impactful to the autonomy of the spacecraft, and the collection of data is the first step. Due to the many types of telemetry required throughout the spacecraft, it may be more cost effective to make some types of sensors mobile. The other two trades have to do with self-actuation of valves and the sparing philosophy. Ubiquitous actuation may require more mass and a more complex strategy for redundancy than using robotic manipulators for certain interfaces. Likewise, in-place redundancy may be less complex than a common spares philosophy,
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