Since NASA believes to send people on a long-term lunar station by 2020, researchers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created software to model supply chains for oxygen delivery, delivery of food, fuel, exploration equipment, and spare parts.
Olivier de Weck, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems, and David Simchi-Levi, professor of engineering systems and civil and environmental engineering, created with NASA funding SpaceNet. The supply chain software sets on a map space routes for delivering of goods. The software is written in MATLAB, a computer language used for algorithms.
This software evaluates the ability of vehicles to carry pressurized and non-pressurized load, simulates traffic stream of vehicles and supplies, and calculates the fuel and time need for single missions and multiyear campaigns. It takes up to four days to get to the moon — but several weeks to prepare for a launch.
The supply chain will operate on some of the same principles used by manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, although and delays could last up to nine months, de Weck said. The software is also supposed to allow engineers, planners and others concentrate on crews’ exploration needs.