Reusable Space Vehicle Baseline Conceptual Vehicle

Modeling efforts for future space operation vehicles at the United States Air Force Research Labs Air Vehicles Directorate have been focused towards the in flight mission. To better serve the research and development effort, a simulation of the ground operations is required allowing for trade- offs within turnaround operations and between the components that drive those procedures. However, before a simulation can be developed a conceptual model must be generated to guide the model building process. This research provides a baseline conceptual model for reusable space vehicles based on the space shuttle as the only operational vehicle of its kind. The model is built utilizing the Integrated Definition (IDEF) methodology, specifically IDEF3. IDEF3 is focused towards process-viewpoint diagramming and layout. The model is developed using the hierarchical development capabilities of the IDEF3 methodology and is broken into modules allowing for greater reuse and usability. This model captures the scheduled maintenance performed to turnaround the space shuttle for the next launch but does not contain every activity. The idea was to capture the baseline activities that may be found in future Reusable Space Vehicles and provide a description of what happens at Kennedy Space Center when preparing the space shuttle for the next launch.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Reusable Space Vehicle Baseline Conceptual Vehicle', published 2004 under ISBN 9781423517078 and ISBN 1423517075.