Over the moon, star trek : opportunities in space and moon mission supply chain logistics

 

 Over the moon, star trek : opportunities in space and moon mission supply chain logistics

I am Gayathri Nair, final year MBA student . The whole idea about space, moon and galaxy is very fascinating to me, hence here I am with another blog to share some information about opportunities in space and moon logistics .

To borrow from the words of captain Kirk from star trek ....." To boldly go where no 3 PL has gone before " ,NASA is sourcing for partners to give them back up support to deliver supplies some 250,000 miles into the lunar orbit to make the Artemis Moon Missions a  success .

The congress has authorized around 7 billion dollars to be spent  over the next 15 years in developing a deep space supply chain to help in transport , store and handle supplies

The first women on moon will be propelled in the Artemis moon mission by 2024

Lunar gateway ,the spaceship that will be orbiting the moon will be the home base for future moon and mars missions .it will be here that astronauts will be living .

The supply chain will have to work out the logistics of sending logistic spacecraft on a commercial aircraft to the gateway spaceship for six months of operation

NASA is looking for solutions for delivering cargo to enable their deep space supply chain .cargo ,science and other supplies need to reach the gateway .in addition the supply chain will have to address logistic spacecraft design , cargo mass capability ,pressurized volume ,power availability for payloads and transit time to gateway

Maxar technologies has been enlisted to develop and launch a power propulsion element and communications for gateway by 2022

This Is a built up on the capabilities NASA pioneered in low earth orbit with commercial cargo resupply to international space station .this is a next step towards opening up deep space commercially .

The next step is to create a warehouse in space .the project will support space station that currently orbits earth and to launch HALO ...habitation and logistic outpost in 2023.

HALO will serve as a gateway for tools and supplies that will be utilized by space station

The gateway will serve as a docking hub with three ports ,including a storage hub for logistic supply and human lander . traffic to the moon will be once a year so wise planning has to go into what they pack ,and once it reaches gateway how stagecraft tracking can be done autonomously .so packing technology and tracking technology like RFID and robotics  will be critical to move and find things .3d printing , voice recognition technologies like Alexa ,google and sir I ,led lights and recycling ideas are other parts of a sustainable supply chain .

Innovative models of cargo module is solicited from traditional supply chain companies to assist in NASA' s migration to space .

The supply chain network will deliver human and technology to outer space with lowest possible operational cost  and risk .The supply chain will be aimed at making space probe sustainable . it should be equipped to harvest resources from other planets and deliver them to earth .

MIT  has launched interplanetary supply chain management and logistic architecture project to develop an integrated capability for guiding the development of interplanetary supply chain that will be required to enable sustainable exploration of the Earth Moon Mats system .in addition to NASA , ISRO, China aerospace research organization , European space agency are planning on expanding their space operation .


The possibilities of supply chain in outer space is vast but intricate . how its put to use and how successful it shall be is something we need to wait and watch ..

                             Opportunities like this comes once in a blue moon