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MSPO 513 1

Earth Science

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MSPO 513 1.4 Research Mission: Requirements

Space Habitation and Life Support Systems

The central assignment for this course is a research mission project focusing on a space habitation and life support systems scenario that you will select. To help in the completion of your research project, interim step-by-step deliverables are scheduled for each module week. These intermediate deliverables will be shared with your instructor and your peers to provide you with positive, actionable feedback to enhance your mission.

Your research mission will consist of the creation of a conceptual design of a human habitat and life support system to accomplish one of the three scenarios:

Scenario: Tourist Mission

Tourist mission to the moon with a one-week stay on the lunar surface offering tours of the lunar surface.

Lunar Tourist Mission Scenario (ERAU/1:50)

For each scenario, six people will constitute the tourist group or exploration team. There will also be a crew. Space and surface transportation for all scenarios are provided by the course. You will be expected to provide your assessment of the best habitation and life support planning and technologies for the mission. Remember to discuss optimum spacesuit designs. Completion of mission objectives include the safe return to Earth of all space travelers in as good or better health than at the start is the end of the exercise.

Remember, you will choose as your mission scenario either a tourist mission to the Moon; an exploratory mission to the Martian surface; or an exploratory mission to the asteroid 1036 Ganymed. During transit be sure to address diet, meds, physical and mental training, and protective gear. Try not to take anything for granted. For example, onboard air may be pure oxygen or some mixture of gases. It will be provided at adequate pressure and temperature to the cabin, suit, or surface vehicle as the case may be. You may wish to recycle it. How much will you need to take with you for the mission? For that matter, how much food and water? And so forth. Further, you may choose small rotating equipment for producing local artificial gravity within the ship if you wish.

While developing your design remember that oftentimes multiple uses may be made of one resource. For example, water is needed to sustain human life on the mission and may also be configured to be used for radiation protection as well as be broken down to be used as fuel. Thus, the habitation side of things (ships hull, equipment, and so forth) may overlap with the life support side of the problem (air, food, water, warmth, and so forth).

Please, avoid resorting to any type of science fiction.

Mission Preparation and Prelaunch-operations

Prior to launch, you will design a preparatory program including diet, meds, and physical and psychological training. Be sure to specify the optimum length of the prep phase.

For launch, describe your optimum design for life support over and above the basic system provided. For example, should space travelers be wearing pressure suits? Remember to address the psychological concerns of space travelers.

Mission Guidance & Outline

The page count requirement is a minimum of 18 pages of double-spaced solid content in current APA format. Figures, graphs, tables, and so forth are highly encouraged and should be appropriately referenced but do not count towards the final page count. References and in-text citations should be in current APA format. View Tutorials and Resources if you require assistance with APA compliance, writing, or plagiarism.

Remember to address enabling technological advances; costs; materials; and both technical and environmental constraints. Also, design tradeoffs you will make to achieve the selected optimum should be included along with lessons learned from the past that are still applicable today. Finally, your informed assessment of your final system performance effectiveness should be presented to the reader along with associated strengths and weaknesses. 

Please make sure to follow the outline below when constructing your research mission paper.

• Title Page
• Table of contents
• Abstract
  • Background/context/perspective
  • Scenario
  • Findings
  • Interpretation
  • Recommendation
  • Introduction
  • Background Scenario
  • History, perspective, context, enabling technological advances, and so forth.
• Literature Survey
• Analysis and Findings
• Synthesis and Interpretation
  • Phase 1 - Pre-launch
  • Phase 2 - Launch to LEO
  • Phase 3 - LEO Launch to Destination orbit
  • Phase 4 - Destination orbit down to Surface
  • Phase 5 - Surface Stay
  • Phase 6 - Surface to Orbit
  • Phase 7 - Orbit to LEO
  • Phase 8 - LEO to Earth
  • Phase 9 - Post-mission on Earth
• Summary
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• References - 1-2 pages of references (APA list of anything you paraphrase, quote, take from the internet, or any figure of table you use from another source. If you have any doubt whether to reference, go ahead and reference it even if it may be fragmentary).
• Bibliography (Optional - general references of potential interest to the reader that are not listed on the reference page).
• Appendices (Optional - may contain additional figures, derivations, pictures, and so forth that while relevant to the topic are not useful in the flow of the main content.