Systems Analysis of Emergency Escape and Recovery Systems for the U.S. Space Station

摘要

Recent designs for the U.S. manned space station have crews on board the space station without any means of emergency escape for periods of up to 90 days. This investigation analyzes emergency escape recovery systems for use on the space station in an effort to find the best escape device. Initially, the objectives to be met by an effective escape device were identified along with the corresponding measures of effectiveness (MOE) for each objective. Fifteen alternative escape systems were found that could be used on the manned core portion of the space station complex. A preliminary analysis reduced the number of alternatives considered for more detailed analysis to six. These final six, The Maneuverable Entry Research Vehicle (MERV), Emergency Astronaut Re-entry Parachute System, Manned Orbital Escape System (MOSES), MOOSE (Man out of Space Easiest), and Apollo Command Module, were compared on the basis of their calculated MOEs using multi-attribute utility theory. The overall utilities for each of the final six alternatives were calculated for two crew sizes, 3-man and 8-man. MOSES was found to consistently rate the highest overall utility for both manning scenarios. The next best alternative was the Apollo Command Module. Theses.