Investigations on Lunar Operations Concepts for Human Spaceflight

Abstract

In the course of the current decade the return to the Moon is on the agenda of NASA - this time in a joint effort with other space agencies like ESA, CSA and JAXA. The German Space Operations Center (GSOC) as part of DLR is able to bring in their 40 years of experience in human space flight operations into this new endeavour. A study phase together with the TU München has been started some years ago to investigate challenges and necessary operations changes for missions beyond LEO. This paper provides the results of the investigations on operating the notional lunar infrastructure for human spaceflight in the early 2030s, consisting of the Gateway and medium-sized landing missions to the lunar south pole. The analysis compares different operational concepts of the Gateway, i.e. campaign mode versus continuous mode and provides an overview on the expected setup of the involved control centers on Earth. It is assumed that the major goal of a landing near the lunar south pole is the search for water ice in permanently shadowed regions (PSR). As the PSRs are normally not reachable by astronauts due to the expected low temperature, the operational scenario of a rover searching for water ice in a PSR is laid out and analysed including the necessary human robotic interaction. This paper summarizes the results of the investigation on this notional scenario. It provides an outlook on the foreseen next steps towards an operations setup around and on the moon including the envisaged European tasks in a planned lunar exploration scenario.