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13/03/2006
FIPES
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NTE has been recently awarded an ESA contract in the frame of the Aurora program to conduct a definition study of a Facility for Integrated Planetary Exploration Simulation, FIPES. The objective of this study is to provide a preliminary concept and development plan of a scientific facility as a platform for integrated simulation of long-term manned space missions to the Moon and Mars. Simulation activities are central in preparation for human space exploration and, according to ESA, must include four key disciplines: Physiology, Psychology, Life Support and Exobiology. |
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NTE is leading consortium that integrates industrial, research and academia members bringing to the project the required expertise. It consists of:
- Master Ingeniería Arquitectura (Barcelona, E), as responsible for the civil engineering activities
- MEDES (Toulouse, F) as consultant expert on Space physiology
- IS in and Out Space, srl (Florence, I) as expert on space psychology, habitability and human factors
- The MELiSSA group in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, UAB, (Barcelona, E) providing expertise on life support issues
- Centro de Astrobiología, CAB (Madrid, E) providing support on exobiology maters
In addition, NTE will cooperate with ESADE, a reputed Business School in Barcelona (E) for the study of the commercial impact of such a facility on a generic location place.
The FIPES facility will implement four zones. The Core Isolation Habitat (CIH) will permit the simulation of habitat conditions that a crew may encounter in a transit spacecraft or a planetary surface base. The CIH will be the centre for physiology and psychology experimentation and life support training. The External Habitat Activities (EHA) will permit the simulation of planetary surface activities (mainly connected with exobiology) and operational procedures. The EHA will feature a Planetary Body of Interest (PBI) were representative Lunar and Martian analogues will be recreated. The Control Support Structure (CSS) will replicate a mission control centre allowing the monitoring and control of the on-going experiments and will include all the scientific facilities needed for preparing the simulation campaigns. Finally, the Educational Structure (ES) will be a unique building evoking the Space Exploration and used to disseminate these activities to a broad audience, from scientists, academia and students to general public.
The project was kicked-off in January '06 and will conclude with the delivery to ESA of a Consolidated Preliminary Design in December '06. |
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