Browsing by Author "Petrov, Georgi I."
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Item Implementation of In-situ Resource Utilization for the Development of a Moon Village(51st International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/10/2022) Arnhof, Marlies; Rich, Belinda; Lakk, Hanna; Makaya, Advenit; Cowley, Aidan; Petrov, Georgi I.; Inocente, Daniel; Koop, ColinIn-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is considered to be an essential element to enable the sustainability of future long-term exploration missions. Sustainable construction, operation and maintenance of a permanent human settlement will require the use of local resources, to gradually reduce the dependence on shipments from Earth and the associated mission cost and complexity. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and faculty in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are working on developing material and processes technologies that will be integrated into civil engineering and architectural applications for a permanent human settlement on the lunar surface. In this paper, we propose a gradual strategy for the development of the ISRU capabilities through the stages of the settlement�s evolution and describe the infrastructure required to support the volume of activities corresponding to the various development phases. The spatial layout of the ISRU elements is developed in coordination with the Moon Village masterplan, which is documented in earlier publications. Aspects which can benefit from ISRU include oxygen and water production for propellant and life support, construction and hardware elements, energy generation and storage, as well as re-use and recycling of materials brought from Earth. This proposed strategy highlights areas where technology development goals are identified which maximize opportunities for the implementation of ISRU in the context of a lunar settlement.Item Solar Array Configurations for the Moon Village(2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2020-07-31) Halbach, Eric; Inocente, Daniel; Haney, Max; Katz, Neil; Petrov, Georgi I.The Moon Village master plan is an architectural concept for a sustainable, international human outpost on the rim of Shackleton Crater near the lunar South Pole. This site receives nearly continuous sunlight throughout the lunar year, providing a clear benefit for human psychological needs and technically, as it can greatly contribute to solar power generation. In general, a solar panel would need to be oriented vertically, facing the horizon, while rotating 360° to track the Sun, which varies in elevation angle by only some +/-1.5° at the proposed location. To support a growing settlement, an array of several panels could be installed within a ground area. This faces the problem, however, that panels currently exposed to the Sun may occlude those behind, lowering the total exposure and making some configurations ineffective if many panels remain highly occluded. This problem was studied by comparing the simulated exposure of various array configurations during a lunar daily cycle. First ground spacing was considered for arrays of 2 to 5 panels. Mean total exposure was found to increase by up to 66% if the array's circular ground area diameter was increased to three times the minimum, while the actual array configuration had a small effect. For predefined square ground areas, several versions of six array types were tested. For smaller numbers of wider panels, several configurations offered similar mean exposures. Filling the available area with more, narrower panels could result in a gradual increase in mean exposure, or a decrease due to more gaps between panels. The Arrow array achieved ~96% of the available mean exposure using the least total panel area, while the X-array provided similar mean and full minimum exposure using the least panel area. Hexagonal configurations provided ~98% of the available mean, and the full minimum, using more panel area.Item Solar Arrays with Variable Panel Elevations for the Moon Village(50th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7/12/2021) Halbach, Eric; Inocente, Daniel; Katz, Neil; Petrov, Georgi I.The Moon Village master plan by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the European Space Agency is a concept for a permanent human settlement near the lunar South Pole, on the rim of Shackleton Crater. The project location has been determined to receive nearly continuous sunlight throughout the lunar year, offering the potential for nearly continuous solar power generation. One challenge, however, is that the Sun remains near the horizon during the lunar daily cycle. For an array of several solar panels deployed in a ground area, panels currently facing the Sun would cast long shadows, possibly occluding other panels behind. A previous study by the authors identified favorable spatial configurations of vertically-oriented solar panels which increased the average exposed total panel area while minimizing the number of panels or total panel area. One simplifying assumption was the use of panels at the same elevation in each array. Using panels with different elevations, however, offers the possibility of increasing solar panel exposure for a given ground deployment area. The previous study is therefore extended in this paper by studying arrays with panels that can have different fixed or actuated elevations, in order to find favorable configurations to increase average solar exposure during a simulated lunar day. Two automatic panel control strategies are proposed for circular array configurations: Automatic Elevation Control makes is possible to achieve maximum panel exposure using two elevation levels, while Automatic Angle Adjustment (AAA) addresses the problem of partial panel shading by rotating some panels away from the solar incidence angle in order to avoid shadowing from other panels. In one example, AAA provides up to a 45% increase in the exposed area of unshaded panels compared with each panel facing the Sun at a perpendicular angle.