Investigating Crew Maintenance Modes for a Lunar Orbital Spaceport Station
The investigation concerned a methodological approach to selecting crew maintenance modes for a lunar orbital spaceport station and sought to detect the most efficient mode. We assumed the orbital station characteristics to be close to those of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway project that is currently scheduled in the USA. Using such a station as a base for assembling an interplanetary mission system is part of developing manned astronautics. We utilised systems analysis to conduct our investigation. We developed a mathematical model of the lunar space infrastructure, including the orbital station, transportation vehicles and launch vehicles. We assume a dual launch mission profile where a space tug attaches to a spacecraft or module in a low Earth orbit for a subsequent lunar transfer. We obtained program costs as a function of average launch frequency of the interplanetary mission system modules for two crew maintenance options. We determined a feasible range of average delivery frequency for interplanetary mission system modules, leading to long-term stay being preferable for manned missions while a system like this is being deployed