Health Monitoring System for Future Reusable Launcher: from Operational Aspects to Mission Risk Management Impacts

摘要

Recent research on reusable launchers indicates that those vehicles require a more complex design and higher technology performance levels than actual expendable launchers. The need for an advanced Health Monitoring System (HMS) appears then to be unavoidable to assure the concept of reusability at an affordable cost without affecting the overall mission risk. After a brief reminder on mission risk management aspects and then possible ways to reduce the risks inherent to any system operation, the sensor specifications of this advanced integrated HMS are fully deduced from the environmental and operational requirements, according to the NDE sensing technique in review and the corresponding final detection objectives. Some short examples are given all the way long to show what has already been developed and where the most difficult problems remain (including also remote controlled systems like space probe, deep-see submarine, etc.). With the help of an advanced integrated multi-sensor network (hardware) and the use of an expert system (software), damage detection, monitoring and prognosis are envisaged to deduce the safety state of any subsystem or associated operation. Then the information is used to modify accordingly the mission scenario if imposed to maintain an acceptable level of risk.