Analogs Supporting Design of Lunar Command, Control, Communication, and Information Architectures

This paper demonstrates how a survey of carefully selected analogs can be employed to map the multi-dimensional trade space for the design of information exchange oriented services in a system-of-systems context. Pursuant to this idea, a survey was conducted across historicalandcontemporaryanalogsforcrewedandroboticlunarsurfaceoperationmissions. Survey results were used to generate a list of key design variables and options available for the design of Lunar Command, Control, Communication, and Information architectures for such missions. Organization of these variables and options yielded a broad design trade space. However, some portion of the trade space covered design considerations not presented in the analogs; these unique considerations were characterized and added to the trade space by subject matter experts in the relevant application domains. The survey also provided insights into useful combinations of design options within the trade space as determined by successes across several analogs (even though the operational conditions were varied).As an overarching result, combining the system-of-systems trade space and insights extracted from the analog survey with those of application problem specific design experts is shown to be most effective method for formulating prospective architectural design solutions for further investigation via model-based engineering or in-field testing.