DEMOCRITOS, Requirements & Development Plan

Abstract

In the near future a need for increasingly large space structures is expected (identified e.g. at the MEGAHIT Brussels workshop, The Global Exploration Roadmap). Possible sources of this need are e.g. the replacement of the International Space Station (ISS) as well as future lunar and interplanetary missions. Therefore, key structure technologies are required to meet the mission requirements. Those developed technologies will be tested and verified on ground within the corresponding testing facilities. DLR, with it´s research institutes is deeply involved in both the investigation of the future mission’s scenarios e.g. the Post-ISS-scenario as well as development and testing of innovative and efficient structure technologies for space application. This document describes the design and testing logic to be followed while developing a ground demonstrator for large deployable space structures. In the report a logical flow can be found, starting from the mission requirements towards structure requirements. The main aim is to design a spacecraft capable of multi-mission, including cargo mission to the moon, asteroid deflection, and exploration mission to Jupiter moons. The first in-orbit demonstration mission could be Mars. The selected mission serves as the reference within the DEMOCRITOS SC activities for development of a modular MW spacecraft (WP5). Within this report, structure requirements as well as available structure technologies and current developments which can be utilized the MW-spacecraft are summarized. Note, that the applied reference scenario for Mars serves as an essential example for setting up the road map as well as for development and evaluation of the development and design processes independent of the de facto selected mission in the future.