Missions beyond LEO are challenging for traditional survivability paradigms such as redundancy management, reliability, sparing, orbital replacement, and mission aborts. Distances, transit…

This federal contract award, valued at $99,529.00, was issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of Delaware under a Cooperative Agreement. The purpose is to develop a Repair, Manufacturing, and Fabrication (RMAF) facility to increase the capability of human spaceflight crews to recover from spacecraft component failures during missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

The RMAF will combine elements of a machine shop, soft goods lab, and repair shop into an in-vehicle capability for both microgravity and surface spacecraft. This addresses an overarching gap in the ability to mitigate spacecraft component failures, going beyond just replacing failed components with spares. The RMAF will also require specific capabilities to work with soft goods components used in many space exploration applications. This contract is not associated with a set-aside designation, indicating an open competition.

Missions beyond LEO are challenging for traditional survivability paradigms such as redundancy management, reliability, sparing, orbital replacement, and mission aborts. Distances, transit durations, crew time limitations, onboard expertise, vehicle capabilities, and other factors significantly limit the ability of human spaceflight crews to respond to in-flight anomalies. There is a need for a repair, manufacturing, and fabrication (rmaf) facility to increase the capability of the crew to recover from spacecraft component failures by combining aspects of machine shop, soft goods lab, and repair shop into an IVA capability for both microgravity and surface spacecraft. A rmaf is responsible for restoring damaged components to working order (repair), keeping components in service or properly functioning (maintenance), and creating new components from raw or scavenged materials (fabrication). This responsibility extends not only to the habitat, but to all other elements sharing the same destination environment (e.g., landers, rovers, robots, power systems, science instruments, etc.). NASA is exploring space architectures that can serve as next steps to build upon the current artemis program. The common habitat architecture study is based on a suite of common spacecraft elements that can be used for long-duration human spaceflight in multiple destinations, including the moon, mars, and deep space. Because most habitats intended for use beyond LEO do not return to earth, yet may operate for decades, IT can be assumed that even low probability failures will eventually occur and there must be a way to recover from them and continue the mission. Thus, the common habitat must include the rmaf capability. The rmaf speaks to an overarching GAP of inability to mitigate spacecraft component failures. The rmaf goes beyond the replacement of failed components with spares and focuses on the capabilities to restore failed components to working order, making them effectively the new spare. Because softgoods are used in many space exploration applications, and often do not have the longevity of metals or composites in use, the rmaf will require specific capabilities to work with softgoods elements. Softgoods components use several materials formats (coated fabrics, textiles, films, webbings, etc.) which are themselves comprised of a wide range of materials (polyurethane, polyethylene, polyester, polyimide, nomex, vectran, elastomers, etc.). The processes required to repair and rework softgoods typically include sewing, thermal welding, adhesive bonding, and taping. Of particular interest in this study is identifying processes and equipment that can adapt to a range of needs, have excellent process control, minimize crew burden, and eliminate the need for complex machines and multi-part adhesive systems used on earth in the manufacturing of the original softgoods components.