Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Research Articles

Integrating risk and knowledge management in human spaceflight programs

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) in the 2004 timeframe to manage a new portfolio of programs and projects aimed at lunar return. To ensure an effective transfer of knowledge from NASA legacy programs, such as Apollo, International Space Station, and Space Shuttle, ESMD took an integrated approach towards managing risk and knowledge. This case study examines the implementation of ESMD’s integrated risk and knowledge management (IRKM) framework in the 2005-2012 timeframe. An important and novel aspect of this approach was using risk records to identify knowledge gaps and support the creation and transfer of both tacit and explicit knowledge. This explanatory case study describes how the integration of knowledge management and risk management, at both the enterprise and project-level, creates value to both processes and can assist any organization in more effectively pursuing its goals. The case also investigates how coupling these two business processes can garner broader-based organizational support for knowledge management activities. This paper is about enhancing risk management but at the same time it is a front-line investigation of what it takes to successfully implement and sustain a knowledge management enabled learning organization.

Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS) 2010 Education and Public Outreach (EPO)

The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Directorate Integration Office conducts analog field test activities, such as Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS), to validate exploration system architecture concepts and conduct technology demonstrations. Education and Public Outreach (EPO) activities have been a part of DRATS missions in the past to engage students, educators, and the general public in analog activities. However, in 2010, for the first time, EPO was elevated as a principal task for the mission and metrics were collected for all EPO activities. EPO activities were planned well in advance of the mission, with emphasis on creating a multitude of activities to attract students of all ages. Web-based and social media interaction between August 31 and September 14, 2010 resulted in 62,260 DRATS Flickr views; 10,906 views of DRATS videos on YouTube; 1,483 new DRATS Twitter followers; and a 111% increase in DRATS Facebook fan interactions. Over 7,000 outreach participants were directly involved in the DRATS 2010 analog mission via student visitations at both the integrated dry-runs prior to the field mission and during the field mission; by participating in live, interactive webcasts and virtual events; and online voting to determine a traverse site as part of the NASA initiative for Participatory Exploration (PE).

Integration of a NASA faculty fellowship project within an undergraduate engineering capstone design class

The United States (US) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) provides university faculty fellowships that prepare the faculty to implement engineering design class projects that possess the potential to contribute to NASA ESMD objectives. The goal of the ESMD is to develop new capabilities, support technologies and research that will enable sustained and affordable human and robotic space exploration. In order to create a workforce that will have the desire and skills necessary to achieve these goals, the NASA ESMD faculty fellowship program enables university faculty to work on specific projects at a NASA field center and then implement the project within their capstone engineering design class. This allows the senior – or final year – undergraduate engineering design students, the opportunity to develop critical design experience using methods and design tools specified within NASA's Systems Engineering (SE) Handbook. The faculty fellowship projects focus upon four specific areas critical to the future of space exploration: spacecraft, propulsion, lunar and planetary surface systems and ground operations. As the result of a 2010 fellowship, whereby faculty research was conducted at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama (AL), senior design students in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) had the opportunity to complete senior design projects that pertained to current work conducted to support ESMD objectives. Specifically, the UAH MAE students utilized X-TOOLSS (eXploration Toolset for the Optimization Of Launch and Space Systems), an Evolutionary Computing (EC) design optimization software, as well as design, analyze, fabricate and test a lunar regolith burrowing device – referred to as the Lunar Wormbot (LW) – that is aimed at exploring and retrieving samples of lunar regolith. These two projects were implemented during the 2010–2011 academic year at UAH and have proven to significantly motivate and enhance the students understanding of the design, development and optimization of space systems. The current paper provides an overview of the NASA ESMD faculty fellowship program, the 2010 fellowship projects, a detailed description of the means of integrating the X-TOOLSS and LW projects within the UAH MAE senior design class, the MAE student design project results, as well as the learning outcome and impact of the ESMD project had upon the engineering students.

Honors

William Kuperman, professor of oceanography and director of the Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, has been selected as the 2011 recipient of the Walter Munk Award for distinguished research in oceanography related to sound and the sea. The award, to be presented by the Oceanography Society this fall, recognizes significant original contributions to the understanding of physical ocean processes related to sound in the sea, among other factors. Laurie Leshin, deputy associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) at NASA Headquarters, is leaving the agency in September to become dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y. Leshin, who has served as ESMD deputy since 2010, joined NASA in 2005 as director of science and exploration at the Goddard Space Flight Center. She is president of the AGU Planetary Sciences section.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO): Observations for Lunar Exploration and Science

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was implemented to facilitate scientific and engineering-driven mapping of the lunar surface at new spatial scales and with new remote sensing methods, identify safe landing sites, search for in situ resources, and measure the space radiation environment. After its successful launch on June 18, 2009, the LRO spacecraft and instruments were activated and calibrated in an eccentric polar lunar orbit until September 15, when LRO was moved to a circular polar orbit with a mean altitude of 50 km. LRO will operate for at least one year to support the goals of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), and for at least two years of extended operations for additional lunar science measurements supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). LRO carries six instruments with associated science and exploration investigations, and a telecommunications/radar technology demonstration. The LRO instruments are: Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER), Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE), Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP), Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND), Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). The technology demonstration is a compact, dual-frequency, hybrid polarity synthetic aperture radar instrument (Mini-RF). LRO observations also support the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), the lunar impact mission that was co-manifested with LRO on the Atlas V (401) launch vehicle. This paper describes the LRO objectives and measurements that support exploration of the Moon and that address the science objectives outlined by the National Academy of Science’s report on the Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon (SCEM). We also describe data accessibility by the science and exploration community.

Lunar science research proposals sought

NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in cooperation with the agencys Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, is seeking research projects for the NASA Lunar Science Institute. According to the notice, proposals “should include broadly based investigations of the highest quality that address lunar science objectives” and also should align with the institute's goals and objectives. Notices of intent are due 27 June 2008, and proposals are due 29 August 2008.

Challenges to the Sustainability of Space Exploration

NASA has an elaborate process for identifying and mitigating technical risks in its human space exploration program. However, non-technical risks—political, economic, and societal—are not captured in this process. Such risks are large in number, diverse in character, often unpredictable, and can be impossible to prevent because they are beyond the space agency's control. NASA's mission directorates are responsible for long-term strategic planning, so despite the difficulties, the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) must direct its attention to long-term sustainability risks and the development of mitigation plans. This article surveys long-term risk factors and, where possible, makes suggestions on mitigation approaches for consideration by ESMD and NASA's top management.

NASA's plans for Moon base

As part of NASA's Global Exploration Strategy, the agency announced on 4 December that the United States will begin sending astronauts to the Moon again in around 2020 and plans to establish a permanent base there sometime around 2024. However, the agency has yet to determine key details of the plan, including cost and what science will be conducted.Scott Horowitz, associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, said, “A lunar base will be the central theme in our…plan for going back to the Moon in preparation for going to Mars and beyond.”

Extending the START framework: Computation of optimal capability development portfolios using a decision theory approach

AbstractSpace program managers and decision‐makers must make strategic investment decisions regarding R&D on technologies, capabilities, missions, and programs, while under a variety of constraints. These constraints include limited budgets, infrastructure, and time restrictions, as well as programmatic and institutional priorities. Acquiring, analyzing, and synthesizing the large amount of information required for a rational decision poses an enormous challenge. To address these challenges, the authors have developed analytical methodologies and computational systems to support strategic decision‐makers within NASA: the START (STrategic Assessment of Risk and Technology) approach, a methodology allowing the quantitative assessment of technologies, capabilities, missions, scenarios and programs in support of human decision‐makers. Supporting the START methodology, new analytical formulations were added, addressing additional decision issues intrinsic to space programs. These include: (1) a utility‐based assessment of capabilities and technologies; (2) modeling dependencies between capabilities and/or between capabilities and programmatic goals; (3) modeling the impact of partial versus complete funding; (4) compute temporally optimal portfolios for staging funding over time; and (5) provide a robustness assessment of the analysis results. We also assess the results, and present sensitivity analysis procedures for validating the START results. We present two case studies; a study conducted for NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), and an analysis for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD). We conclude with the next steps in the evolution of the START methodology. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.* Syst Eng 9:331–357, 2006