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ESDMD #0807: Docking and Berthing between Surface Elements on the Moon and Mars

Dust-tolerant mating between surface elements, such as rovers and habitats, so crew, cargo and commodities can move between them in a shirtsleeve environment without EVA (bin 2, rating 15 of 57). "No existing dust-tolerant berthing/docking fills the need"; the heritage is ISS docking systems. The target is pressure integrity "for up to a decade of surface operations". It is named in the Moon Base Users Guide (near-term), for pressurized mating and initial habitation (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0807; Users Guide, pp. 12–13).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #0807 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field (ADD Rev C, p. 242).

Description

"The ability for surface elements to share services and transfer commodities, cargo, and/or crew by establishing a pressurized environment and intravehicular activities (IVA) without performing extravehicular activities (EVA) has been identified for enabling sustained lunar operations. No existing dust-tolerant berthing/docking fills the need."

Impacts and benefits: "Closing this docking and berthing gap will reduce the need to use EVA for crew and cargo transfer. This increases EVA time for exploration, reduces time moving carriers in tight quarters, reduces number of required EVAs, etc."

Current state of the art

"Heritage ISS docking systems. Surface docking/mating systems for dusty surface environments do not currently exist."

Performance target

  • Moon/Mars: "Dust-tolerant mating system and utilities/logistics connections that can facilitate the transfer of commodities and/or crew and cargo between elements in a shirtsleeve environment while maintaining pressure integrity for up to a decade of surface operations."
  • Mars: "In addition, increased reliability compared to the lunar performance target."

Child gaps

  • 0807-01: Surface element docking sensors
  • 0807-02: Tools for aligning surface assets
  • 0807-03: Cold- and dust-tolerant interface seals to enable pressurized surface transfers and EVAs
  • 0807-04: Surface umbilicals to enable commodity transfer

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-L-201 L -- FN-L-101 L; UC-L-201 L -- FN-L-205 L; UC-M-101 L -- FN-M-203 L
  • Definition tasks: Mars: Crew Surface Mobility Strategy; Surface Ingress/Egress Strategy; Small Cargo Delivery, Stowage, and Return Strategy
  • Cross-reference: two of these functions are also Users Guide Phase 1 functional gaps under logistics: FN-L-101 L, "Provide mating between pressurized assets on the lunar surface", and FN-L-205 L, "Transfer gases to habitable assets on the lunar surface" (Users Guide, p. 9; see Phase 1 functional gaps). This link joins the two sources; neither makes it.

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 2, overall prioritization rating 15 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

The Users Guide names #0807 for two associated challenges (Users Guide, pp. 12–13):

  • "Pressurized mating": "Mating pressurized systems on the lunar surface requires dust tolerant systems, which rely on detailed knowledge of lunar regolith and the surface environment."
  • "Initial habitation": "Demonstrate deployment and operation of a small, pressurized, crew rated surface module with a minimal environmental control and life support system and externally supplied power."

The guide ties its challenges to "near-term Moon Base development efforts": missions in phase one "offer opportunities to collect data and mature technologies to enable essential phase two and phase three capabilities" (p. 11). See Technology and knowledge challenges.

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0807 · ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199, 242 · Users Guide, pp. 9, 12–13