Altair Lander Life Support: Design Analysis Cycles 4 and 5

摘要

Life support systems are a critical part of human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA's Altair Lunar Lander team has been pursuing efficient solutions to the technical challenges of human spaceflight. Life support design efforts within Altair through Design Analysis Cycle (DAC) 4 focused on finding lightweight and reliable solutions for the Lunar Sortie and Lunar Outpost missions within the Constellation Program. In DAC-4 and later follow on work, changes were made to add functionality to meet requirements newly accepted by the Altair Project, and to update the design as knowledge about certain issues or hardware matured. In the next cycle, the Altair project began to consider mission architectures outside the Constellation baseline. When mission goals and architecture change several trade studies must be conducted to determine the appropriate design. Finally, several areas of work developed through the Altair project may be applicable to other vehicle concepts for microgravity missions. Maturing the Altair life support system analysis, design, and requirements can provide important information for developers of a wide range of other human vehicles.