MALEO: MODULAR ASSEMBLY IN LOW EARTH ORBIT: ALTERNATE STRATEGY FOR LUNAR BASE DEVELOPMENT* By Madhu Thangavelu 1 ABSTRACT: Modular assembly in low Earth orbit (MALEO) is a new strategy for building an initial operational-capability lunar habitation base, the main purpose of which is to safely initiate and sustain early lunar base buildup operations. In this strategy the lunar base components are brought up to low Earth orbit (LEO) by the Space Transportation System (STS), and assembled there to form the com- plete lunar base. Specially designed propulsion systems are then used to transport the MALEO lunar base, complete and intact, all the way to the moon. Upon touch- down on the lunar surface, the MALEO lunar habitation base is operational. The strategy is unlike conventional concepts, which have suggested that the compo- nents of the lunar base be launched separately from the Earth and landed one at a time on the moon, where they are assembled by robots and astronauts in extra- vehicular activity (EVA). The architectural drivers for the MALEO concept are, first, the need to provide an assured safe haven and comfortable working envi- ronment for the astronaut crew as safely and as quickly as possible, with the min- imum initially risky EVA, and secondly, the maximum exploitation of the evo- lutionary benefits derived from the assembly and operation of space station Freedom (SSF-1). Commonality and inheritability from the space station assembly experi- ence is expected to have an advantageous impact on both the space station program as well as the MALEO lunar base. INTRODUCTION The recent political and economic trends in national and global affairs make this a most opportune moment in history for advancing the space fron- tier for peaceful purposes (Paine 1989). In reaffirming our commitment to leading humanity in manned space exploration, on the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, President Bush charged NASA with developing plans for a permanently manned lunar base, and extending the human domain on to Mars. NASA had been working on lunar return concepts all along (Aired et al. 1988, 1989; Aired and Bufkin 1988) and the recent reports from the NASA Office of Exploration suggest several case studies for both manned lunar and planetary missions under consideration, which are viable, using state-of-the-art or near-term technologies (Exploration 1988; Beyond 1988; Von Puttkamer 1985; Lineberry 1988). Assembly in low Earth orbit (LEO) has been suggested for the manned mission to Phobos and Mars (Bell et al. 1988). From these studies it is evident that, in order to sustain permanent manned presence in cislunar space, an evolutionary architecture must be adopted (Jones 1990). A phase-1 lunar habitation base (LHB-1) is conceived as the second build- ing block of this evolutionary architecture, the first one being the space sta- a Presented at the April 23-26, 1990, Space 90: 2nd International Conference on Engineering, Construction and Operations in Space, held at Albuquerque, New Mex- ico. 'Res. Assoc, Inst, of Aerospace Systems Arch, and Tech. School of Engrg. and the School of Arch., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1191. Note. Discussion open until December 1, 1991. To extend the closing date one month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Manager of Journals. The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and possible publication on March 30, 1990. This paper is part of the Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 3, July, 1991. ©ASCE, ISSN 0893-1321/91/0003-0256/$1.00 + $.15 per page. Paper No. 25995. 256 Downloaded 27 Sep 2010 to 124.182.152.58. Redistribution subject to ASCE license or copyright. Visit ht