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| Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise |
August 15, 2005 - As Published in the NASA Kennedy Space Center SBIR/STTR
(Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer)
2004 Program Year Report
Topic: Systems Integration, Analysis, and Modeling
Subtopic: Process/Industrial Engineering Technologies
Project: A Discrete-Event Simulation Model for Spaceport
Operations (SPACESIM)
Identification and Significance of Innovation
The
spaceport of the future entails transitioning over time from very
high-cost, research-oriented space launches with a relatively low
frequency of launches to an environment where spaceports are
commercialized for the space transportation industry and are required
to support multiple launches per day in a safe, cost-effective manner.
Future spaceports may resemble, from an operational perspective, our
current airports and seaports and will need to resolve many of the
challenges faced by these transportation hubs. These challenges include
(1) safe and secure spaceport operations, (2) efficient movement of
machinery and people through the spaceport, and (3) cost-efficient,
affordable, and timely spaceport operations. Discrete-event simulation
has bee used to assess detailed processes at modern-day seaports. Like
seaport operations, spaceport operations are labor-intensive and
require extensive use of personnel and machinery. The ability to
conduct seaport operations efficiently has been improved significantly
through effective use of seaport assets. This foundation provides a
solid footing from which research for efficient spaceport operations
can be based. This project resulted in an object-oriented
discrete-event simulation system that addresses spaceport operations in
the context of aerospace safety, mobility, and efficiency. To provide
for maximum portability the simulation system was built upon the JAVA
programming language and uses extended hypertext markup language (XML)
for standards-based data interchange. Developing the simulation model
provided the underlying basis for follow-on activities such as two- and
three-dimensional animation and visualization capabilities.
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