SEE 2025 Event Scenario
Mike.Conroy@ucf.edu SEE Smackdown Architect
Paige.A.Whittington@nasa.gov SEE Technical Chair
SEE Sim Smackdown Introduction
The Simulation Exploration Experience (SEE) Sim Smackdown has been uniting students, industry, professional associations, and faculty in collaborative college-level modeling and simulation learning since the first event in Boston in 2011. University Teams from around the world design, develop, test and integrate their Exploration concepts for the Moon, Cislunar Space and Mars. Teams use open standards for modeling and simulation (M&S) that allow their concepts to work together as part of a large-scale space mission. Due to the geographic dispersion of the teams, their concepts interact with one another over the Internet leveraging industry modeling and simulation standards for interoperability with one of the teams providing the infrastructure as well as the base model. Past Smackdown teams helped define the very standards for space simulation (SISO SpaceFOM) in use today, demonstrated those standards and exposed their capabilities to the world.
Legacy missions were focused 50 years in the future, allowing considerable latitude as to systems represented in the simulation. This began to change in 2022 with a move to the NASA Artemis plan (here) with technologies, systems and capabilities expected to be available in the mid-2050s. SEE 2025 is focused on the creation of the initial lunar infrastructure and the foundation for human trips to Mars as described in NASA’s Moon to Mars Campaign Strategy (here).
This document shares the 2025 SEE SmackDown Scenario and sets the stage for a migration towards System Design constructs and language. The major elements are Systems, the student’s designs; the Behaviors, or what those systems actually do; and the Interactions, or how the various Systems communicate with each other. The goal is to keep all of these at a high level, allowing the Teams to mature System, Behaviors and Interactions as they desire and in line with the Artemis architecture.
The Setting
SEE 2025 takes place primarily in Cislunar space. This is the area around and inside the orbit of the moon. The plans are for a base near the Lunar South Pole with outposts and exploratory mission radiating out from that base and the orbital environment including the Gateway Station. This aligns with the first dozen or so envisioned Artemis missions over the next 15 years. Mars missions or mission content is welcome as well.
NASA recently published a number of candidate south pole landing sites (here) for teams to choose from, details of the connecting ridge area are shown to the left and will be releasing 3D surface models of these areas later in 2023.
The “Exploration Frontiers” document (here) shares NASA’s Moon to Mars Campaign Strategy and was developed to help infuse university student concepts into the Moon to Mars Campaign Strategy.
NASA plans indicate that initial missions will be very mobile, potentially with differing landing sites, to enable exploration of various sites of interest. The knowledge gained with this approach will allow exploration of likely sites for fixed infrastructure like a Lunar Base. The 2025 SEE Sim Smackdown welcomes both approaches, but for the simplicity, will restrict Base and Roming activites to 87-90°S latitude (dark ciricle on the the map above). SEE 2025 will represent these concepts at the point in time (Arrow) during the Sustained Lunar Presence and prior to sending humans to Mars. This is an exciting time. A sustainable lunar base, explorers and overhead space station will provide the foundation for Lunar surface exploration and a gateway to Mars.
The Moon to Mars Strategy is to:
- Increase the Lunar Population by providing key infrastructure such as power, habitats, laboratories and a space port for crew and cargo access.
- Increase Economic Opportunity by utilizing local resources to produce propellants, building materials, manufacturing feed stocks and mining.Increase Science Returns by extending mobility and sample return capabilities
This strategy provides a number of opportunities for SEE 2025. The selected epoch, with a sustained human presence on the Moon and before humans go to Mars, includes Lunar surface habitation / exploration, Mars surface exploration and the Lunar orbital environment. Desired SEE 2025 content includes:
