NASA ESAS Final Report November 2005: Section 9.0 Technology Assessment
Editor’s note: DOWNLOAD THIS SECTION (PDF)
Editor’s note: several days ago we posted a final (October 2005) draft of this report. We have since come across a complete copy of the final version of the report (November 2005) which has recently been approved by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. In order to present the most accurate version of this report, we have removed the draft version and replaced it with the final version of the report. NASA is expected to publicly release this report in early January 2006.
9. Technology Assessment
9.1 Summary
The Space Exploration Vision set forth by President Bush cannot be realized without a significant investment in a wide range of technologies. Thus, key objectives of the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) are to identify key technologies required to enable and significantly enhance the reference exploration systems and to prioritize near-term and far-term technology investments. The product of this technology assessment is a revised Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) technology investment plan that is traceable to the ESAS architecture and was developed by a rigorous and objective analytical process. The investment recommendations include budget, schedule, and center/program allocations to develop the technologies required for the exploration architecture.
This section summarizes the results of this assessment, including the key technologies required to support the new architecture. The three major tasks of the technology assessment were: (1) to identify what technologies are truly needed and when they need to be available to support the development projects; (2) to develop and implement a rigorous and objective technology prioritization/planning process; and (3) to develop ESMD Research and Technology (R&T) investment recommendations about which existing projects should continue and which new projects should be established.
Table of Contents
This large 50 MB PDF report has been subdivided into 17 PDF files – one for each of the report’s 17 sections. Click on the link at the top of each section to visit a summary page and to download that section.
Editor’s note: several days ago we posted a final (October 2005) draft of this report. We have since come across a complete copy of the final version of the report (November 2005) which has recently been approved by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. In order to present the most accurate version of this report, we have removed the draft version and replaced it with the final version of the report. NASA is expected to publicly release this report in early January 2006.
- 1. Executive Summary
- 2. Introduction
- 3. Ground Rules and Assumptions
- 4. Lunar Architecture
- 5. Crew Exploration Vehicle
- 6. Launch Vehicles and Earth Departure Stages
- 7. Operations
- 8. Risk and Reliability
- 9. Technology Assessment
- 10. Test and Evaluation
- 11. Integrated Master Schedule
- 12. Cost
- 13. Summary and Recommendations
- 14. Architecture Roadmap
- 15. Architecture Advantages
- 16. ESAS Core Team Members
- 17. Acronyms and Abbreviations
