Return to the Moon: Looking Glass 204 (original) (raw)

2009, AIAA Proceedings.[np]. …

As we lay down plans and ramp up development of transportation systems for returning people to the Moon, alternative concepts are being proposed for activities to conduct there in order to gain the experience necessary to prepare for more ambitious human interplanetary expeditions to Mars and beyond. Fully employing NASA's Constellation transportation systems such as the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Altair Lunar Lander as baseline elements, the USC ASTE527 Return to the Moon: Looking Glass 204 Project pondered the following question: What activities precisely can we do on the Moon, with crew and robots, that can immediately (very short timeframe-2015-2040) benefit not only the science and engineering community, but also humanity as a whole, on a permanent basis ? The establishment of a sturdy cislunar communications system followed by critical crew rescue capability in the proximity of a primary lunar habitat are seen as the foundation blocks for this architecture. Once the foundation is reliably established, essential physical infrastructure to support the emplacement of a suite of permanent, evolvable observatories, long-range traverses to conduct geology and astrobiology, and critical crew support were addressed. Manned, pressurized rovers are essential in order for crew to access observatory sites to set up, calibrate and evolve these man tended facilities which are located along the proposed traverse route. Rovers and crew are also needed to deploy, service and evolve science payloads that are autonomously landed far apart in remote regions of the lunar globe. Participants were tasked to create their own system concepts, which they thought were useful. They presented material on pertinent concepts listed below: 1.

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