FYI,

"The NASA-ESA Comparative Architecture Assessment"
NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Media Release via
SpaceRef
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.spacewire.html?pid=28640

Full document
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/259221main_NASA_ESA_CAA-Report.pdf

: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is
: currently studying lunar outpost architecture concepts,
: including habitation, mobility and communication systems, to
: support U.S. lunar exploration and science objectives. Elements
: of a surface architecture will rely on the Ares I and Ares V
: launch vehicles, the Orion crew exploration vehicle, and the
: Altair lunar lander for transport to the Moon. The European
: Space Agency (ESA) is currently studying scenarios and
: associated architectures for human space exploration to follow
: the International Space Station Program. These studies are at
: their earliest conceptual stage and fall into three general
: scenario categories, each with their own technical capabilities
: and related timeframes, and each having the potential to
: constitute a distinct European contribution to future lunar
: exploration missions.

: In January 2008, NASA and ESA agreed to conduct a comparative
: architecture assessment to determine if their respective lunar
: architecture concepts could complement, augment, or enhance
: the exploration plans of the other. From January through March
: representatives from NASA and ESA engaged in a series of joint,
: qualitative assessments of potential ESA capabilities as applied
: to NASA's architecture concepts. Initial findings from these
: assessments, with respect to each potential ESA category under
: study, are as follows:

: Scenario 1: ESA Provision of Stand-Alone Capabilities

: - Automated Lunar Cargo Landing System: This capability
: (approximately 1.5 metric tons of payload to the lunar surface)
: would significantly extend surface exploration opportunities by
: enabling enhanced mobility or extended habitation, and creates more
: opportunities for science. Further quantitative analysis is
: required to determine how an ESA lander, combined with various
: mission scenarios could enhance global lunar surface exploration
: and enable potential joint missions.

- Communication and Navigation Systems: Beyond a basic capability for
: communication to be secured by NASA, ESA systems for enhanced
: communication and navigation could provide significant mission
: enhancement for all NASA mission scenarios. There are also
: opportunities for international commercial engagement for the
: provision of communications services. In both cases, opportunities
: for detailed collaboration merit further dialogue.

: Scenario 2: ESA Development of Crew Transportation Architecture
: Elements

: - Human Crew Transportation to low-Earth orbit (LEO), including a
: human-rated Ariane 5 launch vehicle and a crew transportation
: vehicle: Experience on the ISS demonstrates that redundant
: transportation is welcome. However, real redundancy with NASA's
: architecture requires a transportation capability that has at least
: access to lunar orbit.

: - Orbital Infrastructures: A low lunar orbiting station as analyzed
: within the ESA transportation architecture studies and that can be
: utilized by NASA has the potential to enhance mission safety and
: performance, and could enable different mission profiles. To fully
: understand the benefits of this station would require further
: dialogue. Other ESA orbital infrastructure concepts (LEO, Lagrange
: points) do not have synergy with NASA's architecture.

: Scenario 3: ESA Development of Dedicated Lunar Surface Exploration
: Elements

: - Surface Habitation Elements or a Surface Rover: Each of these is
: a fundamental, enabling component of any surface architecture.
: These capabilities merit further quantitative analysis to determine
: how they may enable joint lunar exploration missions or enhance
: total mission capabilities.

: There are differences between what NASA believes to be its key
: capabilities and the three categories of potential ESA
: contributions to space exploration. For NASA, the key capabilities
: identified include the transportation elements of the Constellation
: Program that NASA is committed to developing; they are part of
: NASA's mandate to explore, as expressed in both the 2004 U.S. Space
: Exploration Policy and 2005 NASA Authorization Act. For ESA, future
: contributions to human space exploration are similar to NASA's key
: capabilities in that they address areas of high strategic interest
: to the agency and to Europe as a whole, but final decisions on
: their development and implementation have yet to be made, and
: likely will not be made final until 2011. In this respect any
: particular ESA contribution is more like the surface exploration
: elements NASA has examined during its LAT exercises, which will not
: receive funding for development until 2011. An important goal of
: this phase of the CAA therefore is to provide the reader an early
: perspective on opportunities for long-term collaboration between
: NASA and ESA; a perspective which can be valuable in the near-term
: as programmatic and funding decisions are being made.

: NASA is prepared to continue the dialogue following completion of
: the report, and is committed to support more detailed joint studies
: to further define concepts starting in 2009.

Mark Reiff