Analysis of phased implementation strategies of life support systems in a Moon base

Kurzfassung

The Moon is considered a valuable destination for science missions and an important testing ground for future exploration missions. Therefore, the possibility of establishing a permanent presence on the Moon has been discussed in the space community. To reduce transportation costs, a habitation system stationed on the Moon should always incorporate the latest life support technology. However, sophisticated regenerative life support systems are complex and may pose a risk to the stability of the system. To resolve this issue, such technologies could be introduced to the system in a phased manner. The purpose of this work is to provide a means of analyzing the effects of phased implementation strategies of life support systems. Therefore, an analysis tool has been developed which quantifies transportation costs caused by phased implementation strategies in comparison with specifiable benchmark scenarios. Results obtained with the analysis tool indicate a high dependency on the mission scenario and the type of technology under consideration.