General Methodology For Demonstration Mission Design

Abstract

Future human exploration programs point towards new and more challenging objectives. The exploration of Moon and Mars requires new technologies that shall be developed to have them available in the future. These technologies shall complete demonstration missions in space environment in order to be considered flight qualified. The paper deals with the description of the methodology for the design of the demonstration missions. First the technologies to be tested are selected and for them the TRL is assessed according to the European standards. Then, all the activities necessary to increase the TRL, including analysis, experiments, breadboard/prototype development and tests are identified and planned. The demonstration mission design activity starts after the performance requirements for the technologies are defined. Then, the set of possible mission scenario options is defined and the trade-off activity is performed to choose the most cost-effective solution. The trade-offs are performed considering mass, cost, design complexity and risk level indexes. Finally, the detailed description of the demonstration mission(s) is provided through a complete set of requirements