February 2024 workshop: white-paper briefing, Exploration Lessons From the International Space Station¶
Document: 11-2024-architecture-workshop-white-paper-space-station-lessons-learned.pdf, 10 slides, 1,688,355
bytes, from https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/, fetched 2026-10-01T18:28:03Z
(sources/manifest.csv). Title slide: "Exploration Lessons From The International Space Station" (slide 1). No
presenter or date. Footer: "2024 Moon to Mars Architecture Workshops". Listed on the
Architecture Workshops page under "February 2024". Text:
sources/text/docs/2024-02-11-2024-architecture-workshop-white-paper-space-station-lessons-learned.txt; images in
sources/raw/slides/2024-02-11-2024-architecture-workshop-white-paper-space-station-lessons-learned/.
Rank and method. A briefing, not the architecture of record (SCHEMA, "Workshop slides"), older than Rev B and Rev C. It briefs a 2023 white paper the wiki doesn't hold, listed in the opening deck as "Exploration Lessons Learned from the Space Station", a workshop suggestion (Overview and Updates, slide 11). All 10 slides were read in the text layer; the images of the text-poor slides 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 10 were viewed. The title card (slide 1) wasn't: its text gives the whole title. The text has no "Moon Base", "CUI" or "Pre-Decisional" (searched).
Summary. What the space station has shown that bears on exploration: six areas of lessons, of which the deck details two, life support (ECLSS) and navigation, and the station's goals, commercial facilities and partners. It adds to the wiki ISS ECLSS figures as of early 2024 ("Up to 98% Mars-class water recycling", the oxygen generator and CO2 reduction to come) and two navigation demonstrations (Orion's OpNav in the cupola, SEXTANT on NICER). It doesn't name a Moon to Mars objective, gap or element other than Orion.
Slides¶
| Slide | Title (as printed) | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Exploration Lessons From The International Space Station" | Title card |
| 2 | "ISS Mission Goals – The Decade of Results" | Six goals around the station (image): "Enable Deep Space Exploration" ("Validate Exploration Technologies and Reduce Human Health Risks"); "Foster Commercial Space Industry" ("In partnership with Commercial LEO Office"; "Incubate in-space manufacturing, support commercial LEO facilities and customers"); "Conduct Research to Benefit Humanity"; "Inspire Humankind"; "Enable International Collaboration" ("Maintain & expand international partnerships, set norms & standards"); "Provide National Human Space Flight Infrastructure" ("Ensure continuous human presence in LEO - no gap; provide destination for crew & cargo transportation") |
| 3 | "ISS Exploration Lessons Learned" | Six areas: "Fly-Off Plans"; "Environmental Control and Life Support Systems"; "Navigation"; "Food Storage Systems"; "Extravehicular Activities"; "Human Research" (image checked) |
| 4 | "Environmental Control and Life Support Systems" | A loop diagram (image) |
| 5 | "Environmental Control and Life Support Systems" | Water and air |
| 6 | "Navigation" | OpNav and SEXTANT |
| 7 | "Commercial Partnerships" | A station drawing labeled with commercial facilities (image): "External Facilities" (payload deployment, Craig Technologies SSIKLOPS and Nanoracks Kaber; Nanoracks BISHOP Airlock; Aegis Aerospace MISSE-FF materials exposure; Nanoracks NREP; Teledyne Brown Engineering MUSES Earth observation) and "Internal Facilities" (Nanoracks Nanode and Plate Reader; BioServe's SABL and SALI; Space Tango TangoLabs; Redwire's ADSEP, AMF, BFF and MVP) |
| 8 | "International Partnerships" | Photos with JAXA, ESA, NASA, Roscosmos and CSA logos; "International partnership is essential to space station operations and has created an infrastructure of cooperation that is the foundation for the future of human exploration." (image) |
| 9 | "Key Takeaways" | "For more than 20 years, the ISS has provided a unique platform for conducting research in a variety of scientific fields"; "The ISS also offers a platform for technology demonstrations in space, including those needed for future Moon and Mars missions" |
| 10 | "White Paper" | The paper (image) |
Life support (slides 4–5)¶
Slide 4, read from the image: a loop diagram in three "CATEGORIES", "ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING", "ATMOSPHERE MANAGEMENT" and "WATER MANAGEMENT". Around the crew: temperature and humidity control, trace contaminant control, carbon dioxide removal, carbon dioxide reduction (byproducts "Methane (vented overboard)" and "Water"), oxygen generation, oxygen/nitrogen control, urine recovery, potable water processing, waste management, fire detection and suppression, and a "Crew System" (potable dispenser, hygiene). Flows: condensate, cabin air, purified air, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, urine, processed urine, product water, waste water.
Slide 5, as printed:
- "Water Recovery System": "Recycles urine, cabin humidity (crew respiration, sweat, hygiene)"; "Up to 98% Mars-class water recycling has been achieved".
- "Air Revitalization System": "Next generation 4-bed CO2 scrubber"; "Lower CO2 levels improves crew health"; "Advanced Oxygen Generation Assembly will launch in 2024"; "CO2 reduction assembly to be added in 2025, completing the air string".
Slide 3's other four areas (fly-off plans, food storage, EVA, human research) get no slide of their own.
Navigation (slide 6)¶
"Orion uses an optical navigation system called OpNav"; "OpNav has been installed in the ISS cupola, using two cameras and an algorithm to demonstrate the system's accuracy in a real-world environment". NICER "studies neutron stars and pulsars for SMD's Astrophysics Division"; using it, "the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) uses pulsar's radiation flashes to determine position in space, similar to GPS".
The paper (slide 10)¶
Thumbnails of the paper's four pages and a QR code, read from the image as far as the print allows. The first page is headed "Exploration Lessons from the International Space Station", with "2023 Moon to Mars Architecture" down the side and "2023 Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review" in the footer. Legible captions: "Figure 2. Environmental Control and Life Support Subsystem Diagram" (slide 4's diagram, as far as the thumbnail shows) and a Figure 3 of an astronaut with plants. The text layer of slide 10 holds only "White Paper". No body text is quoted here from the thumbnails.
Where it bears on the architecture¶
The deck's subject is RT-8's, using low-Earth orbit to prepare for the Moon and Mars; the pairing is the wiki's. See RT-8. By subject, slide 5's water and air recycling bears on Rev C's life-support gaps and slide 6's navigation on its PNT gaps; the deck cites no gap, and any pairing is the wiki's.
What changed by Rev C¶
The wiki's comparison: the deck is a February 2024 status. Whether the oxygen generation and CO2 reduction assemblies flew as planned is in no source the wiki holds. ADD Rev C's RT-8 assessment speaks of ISS heritage generally, not these systems (RT-8).
Oddities¶
As printed: "pulsar's radiation flashes" (slide 6); the title slide's "Lessons From" against the opening deck's "Lessons Learned from" (slide 11 there).
Related pages¶
RT-8 Leverage Low-Earth Orbit · Habitation Systems · Orion Spacecraft · Overview and Updates, February 2024