Mission Planning Requests

Jason Burr
Hey guys, so mission planning needs some things from the other groups - ASAP. Basically we have a series of different architectures that we're currently considering, but we need a few things from the Avionics, Crew Systems, and Structures groups. I'll describe each of them based upon the group that we need this from:

Avionics
We may have patchy communications with our site on the moon. I'd like from you guys the mass of a communications satellite as a function of it's altitude. So basically as it gets higher up it's going to be more massive in order to accommodate the extended range (at least that's what I imagine would happen). Please make this into a MATLAB script called comms.m that takes as input the altitude above the lunar surface and outputs the mass of the satellite required, like so: sat_mass=comms(200), where 200 km is the desired altitude.

Structures
Same idea as for avionics. We want you guys to come up with a program called lander.m that takes as input the payload the lander brings down and outputs the required mass of the lander in order to accomplish this from a structural viewpoint. More payload should necessitate a more massive lander (one would reason).

Crew Systems
Okay guys, we're asking for two functions from you, but it shouldn't be too bad. The first is going to be   capsule.m  and takes as inputs the number of days a crew of 4 will have to live out of the capsule, and outputs the total mass of the capsule. Please be sure to include the heat shield and wall mass in this consideration! We don't need to worry about all of the details, mainly the consumables and reentry mass (you may want to collaborate with the structures group on this, it's up to you).

The second one should be easier (and may be a good starting point for capsule.m). We want you to make cabin.m which is a function that takes as input the number of days the 4 astronauts will have to survive in the pressurized cabin and outputs the cabin mass. To give you an idea of what this is for, we may want to attach this cabin (not rated for earth re-entry) onto the lander to make a habitable lander for the astronauts to use (instead of bringing the capsule down with its heat shield!). Let us know if the difference in cabin.m and capsule.m aren't clear enough.



As you complete these MATLAB functions, please attach them to this discussion (I think you can do that). Keep in mind, these would be great trade studies for next Thursday that Dr. Akin wants to see, and you'd be greatly assisting the mission planning team. You could even keep updating these functions as time goes on so we don't have to completely redesign just a week before CDR (hint, hint). Keep in touch so we know you're getting this announcement please!



Tom Noyes
For the avionics question - should we include the mass of the satellite bus or just the actual avionics payload? I ask because the bus mass wouldn't necessarily change but the avionics (comms) payload would. If you need total we can just assume a bus similar to those in use already like TDRS.

Jason Burr
I'd go with the bus mass used by TDRS. We can communicate to wherever you want to from the satellite (be it TDRS or some surface antenna). That's up to you guys. But then also try to include the avionics payload if you can - even if it's just a rough guess. We can fix it later. Thanks guys.

<p style="font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Arial,'LiberationSans',FreeSans,sans-serif;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">

<p style="font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Arial,'LiberationSans',FreeSans,sans-serif;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">