NASA Bluesky Meeting “Toward a Sustainable Lunar Architecture”
Bill Clancey participated in an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Bluesky workshop held May 28-29 at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (Pensacola, FL) as part of a series of meetings over the past few years for developing operations concepts and designs for lunar operations.
The goal of this meeting was to “Brainstorm and discuss innovative approaches to the challenges of recycling and reusability.” The discussions focused on 1) opportunities to recycle elements of Altair and other systems within the Constellation architecture and 2) reusing elements of the lunar architecture, such as refueling Altair. The meeting produced a wide variety of concepts worthy of further study and analysis, including regionally functional reusable components (e.g., an earth-moon cycling “taxi”), commercial involvement (e.g., LEO fuel depot), and shifting mindset from designing mission configurations to developing a sustainable and flexible space transportation system.
NASA PROGRAM FUNDING: Exploration Systems Mission Directorate
COLLABORATORS: Doug Craig & John Olson (via telecon) (ESMD); Chris Culbert (Manager Lunar Surface Systems Project, JSC); Michael Gernhardt & Andy Thomas (JSC astronauts); Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17 astronaut); Jeff Hoffman (former astronaut, MIT); Ken Ford (Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition & Chair of NASA Advisory Council); Clinton Dorris (Deputy Project Manager, Altair Project Office, JSC); Matt Leonard (Deputy Manager, Lunar Surface Systems Project, JSC); Butler Hine (ARC); Rob Ambrose & Rob Boyle (JSC Engineering); Brian Wilcox (JPL); and other Constellation management and IHMC researchers
Contact: Bill Clancey
- NASA Official: Dave Korsmeyer
- Curator: ASANI Solutions