International Lunar Observatory Association

ILOA Precursor / Polar Mission Pre-Phase A Study (2010): MDA Study 2

Introduction

The primary goal, as stated on the International Lunar Observatory Association’s web site, is “to expand Human understanding of the Cosmos through observation from our Moon." To attain this goal, the International Lunar Observatory (ILO) project intends to emplace a robotic observatory / antenna dish for astrophysical and other observations / communications near the Moon's South Pole. This robotic observatory will serve as a toe-hold for lunar base build-out and catalyst for cis-lunar commerce and development. Thus, the robotic ILO is both a science and commerce mission, both public and private, for astronomy and communications, with anticipated human service mission follow-on.

The ILOA's ILO-X Precursor Mission will utilize a small, dual function instrument to demonstrate astronomical and other observation and communication techniques aboard the M-1 lander.. The ILO-X will serve as a pathfinder for future ILOA lunar missions and act a technology demonstration to as great an extent as possible. One such future mission is ILOA's ILO-1 Polar Mission. ILO-1 will establish permanent astrophysical observation and lunar commercial communications systems in the Moon's mountainous South Pole region in the 2015 time-frame.

The goals of this pre-Phase A study are to:

1) Advance the ILO-X concept design to the next stage, providing sufficient detail in the concept design, operations concept, mission level requirements, system architecture and performance analysis, and program plan to provide the ILOA with the information to plan and implement a flight development program of the ILO-X instrument as part of the M-1 mission.

2) Advance the ILO-1 concept design to the next stage, providing sufficient detail in the concept design, operations concept, mission level requirements, system architecture and performance analysis, and program plan to provide the ILOA with the information to plan and implement a flight development program of the ILO-1 instrument as part of the M-3 mission.

The study comprises the following Sections:

1) Section 1 provides a general introduction and defines the study goals

2) Section 2 provides an operations concept for both the precursor ILO-X and polar ILO-1 missions, defining the operations, operational environment, processes, needs, and operational scenarios

3) Section 3 provides preliminary mission and system requirements

4) Section 4 defines the precursor ILO-X payload. It provides an evaluation of the precursor mission strawman payload. This evaluation assesses the potential synergies between other payloads with the goals of ILO-X, and discusses possible upgrades and additions to support the goals of the ILO-X mission. The overall M-1 mission architecture is discussed to give context to the ILO-X mission and payload configuration. The ILO-X payload architecture and preliminary concept design is discussed in detail and includes an estimate of the payload engineering budgets.

5) Section 4 defines the polar ILO-1 payload. The overall M-3 mission architecture is discussed to give context to the ILO-1 mission and payload configuration, and the ILO-1 mission architecture is defined. The ILO-1 payload architecture and preliminary concept design is discussed, including an estimate of the payload engineering budgets.

6) Section 6 provides a program plan for both the precursor ILO-X and polar ILO-1 payload flight development. This plan includes a product structure, work breakdown structure, deliverables, schedule and milestones, a development plan and a rough-order-of-magnitude cost approach.