CAST: CARGO ACCOMMODATION SUPPORT TOOL

摘要

The CAST (Cargo Accommodation Support Tool) project originates from the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV, ESA) cargo accommodation problem. On the basis of the Cargo Manifest plan provided by NASA, defining the items quantity, and on the basis of the fluids to be transported to the Space Station, a detailed cargo accommodation analysis has to be performed, for each launch of the ATV carrier. The task results in being very challenging. CAST is an advanced software tool devoted to support the whole ATV analytical cargo accommodation. It is based on Mathematical Programming and Operations Research methodologies. This paper presents the ATV cargo accommodation problem and describes the CAST philosophy and high level architecture.