Title:
Analysis of Infrastructure to Support a Future Space Economy
Analysis of Infrastructure to Support a Future Space Economy
Author(s)
Roohi, Zayn A.
Robertson, Bradford E.
Mavris, Dimitri N.
Robertson, Bradford E.
Mavris, Dimitri N.
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Abstract
Beginning with the Artemis-I mission in late 2022, NASA is embarking upon a series of
increasingly complex missions to establish a permanent presence on the surface of the Moon,
potentially leading to manned Mars missions within the next few decades. Several private
companies have also announced that they have begun work on space tourism projects with
the goal of launching within this same time-frame. Supporting this expansion will require
advanced space logistics and the development of dedicated space-based supply chains in order
to reduce cost and increase resiliency. Previous research has focused on studying the impact
that a specific technology, vehicle, or type of infrastructure has on supporting a single space
campaign or mission; this paper takes a wider view by examining the impact that several types
of infrastructure concepts together will have on the entire set of operations that could take place
within the next decade. Lunar in-situ resource utilization, space depots, and space tugs are
considered as infrastructure concepts, and a Lunar space station, Lunar habitat, Earth space
stations, and Mars missions are considered as the operations to support. A time expanded
mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is used to solve traditional network flow and
supply chain problems, the results of which are used to propose future resupply missions and
supply chain architectures.
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Date Issued
2024-01
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Text
Resource Subtype
Post-print