1 — Mission brief
Plan activation, inspection, power, water, communications and refuge zones before expansion.
This capstone mission requires several modules at once. An answer is complete only when it closes physical budgets, describes sensors and actions, retains margin, handles a credible failure and explains what the crew must do. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
2 — System map
Start by drawing mass, energy, information and authority flows. An arrow without a unit or owner is incomplete. The map is then used to identify common dependencies and interfaces that can propagate failure. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
The first thirty sols are organized as a commissioning campaign rather than a sequence of opportunistic EVAs. The map separates functions qualified before arrival, connections that must be made on Mars, and equipment that should not be activated before verification. The first objective is a durable safe state: power, atmosphere, communications, water, refuge and diagnostic capability before industrial or science throughput is increased.
3 — Data and assumptions
The supplied numbers are training-scenario data. Copy them with units, add missing assumptions and separately mark values that come from NASA sources. Any value that changes the verdict requires sensitivity analysis. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
The scenario defines an activation order with transition criteria. A utility network, for example, is not declared operational until isolation, load and return-to-safe tests are complete. This prevents the common mistake of counting hardware as available as soon as it is physically connected. Each step must generate evidence that remains understandable to the next shift.
4 — Governing relationship
The equation is only an entry point. It must be connected to a budget, an available measurement and a decision threshold. If units do not reduce correctly, stop before using a calculator. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
5 — Starting calculations
Eau
2 400 L ÷ 80 L/sol = 30 solsÉnergie de nuit
18 kW × 12 h = 216 kWhInspection
6 zones × 45 min = 270 min = 4,5 h6 — Mass, power and time budget
Build three separate tables. The mass budget distinguishes structure, consumables, spares and margin. The energy budget separates instantaneous power from accumulated energy. The time budget includes operations, maintenance, rest and communications delay. Positive margin in one table does not automatically compensate for a deficit in another. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
A 2,400-litre inventory provides thirty sols at 80 litres per sol in the scenario, but the division should not hide priorities and losses. The student separates life-critical use, hygiene, maintenance and contingency reserve, then defines an ISRU-start threshold. Starting too late consumes stored margin; starting too early can divert power and crew hours from base stabilization.
7 — Navigation, communications and state knowledge
State which variables must be known locally, which can be reconstructed later by Earth, and what accuracy each decision requires. Radio delay means safing and initial diagnosis must be possible without waiting for Earth. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
State knowledge should be visible in a simple local control view: available power, electrical branch state, volume pressure, inventories, open alarms and communications configuration. Earth receives logs and advises, but the crew must be able to isolate a branch or postpone activation locally. The exercise requires naming who holds authority for those decisions during early surface operations.
8 — Survival and human factors
Check air, water, thermal control, radiation, food, medicine and workload where relevant to this mission. The goal is to avoid a false “all good” technical calculation that forgets sleep time, suit donning or the need for a second crewmember during a critical operation. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
Workload includes acclimation and operational overhead. Inspecting six zones is not merely 4.5 hours of walking or hands-on work; preparation, depressurization, restoration, documentation and recovery also count. The student identifies inspections that can be robotic, tasks requiring two people and noncritical work that will be cancelled when an incident consumes half a day.
9 — Mission-specific injected incident
On sol 4, a secondary electrical network is unavailable; the crew must choose between ISRU activation, external inspection and accelerated refuge commissioning. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
For AM-16.05, the answer must show which quantities in “The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base” are recomputed, which assumptions cease to be valid and which action remains reversible before consuming an irreversible reserve.
Failure of the secondary electrical network on sol 4 forces prioritization. Life-supporting loads and diagnostic capability are preserved first, followed by a decision about ISRU, external inspection and science. Restart conditions are stated, and repetitive energization without understanding the cause is prohibited so that one isolated failure does not become a common-cause event.
10 — Decision and justification
End with an explicit decision: continue, delay, reconfigure, abandon an activity or enter refuge mode. Cite the three quantities controlling that decision and the remaining margin. A conclusion without a numerical or operational criterion is an opinion, not an engineering decision. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».
At sol 30 the base is assessed with measurable criteria: energy autonomy, water inventory, communications availability, number of open anomalies, refuge capability and recovery from an injected failure. The final report compares the achieved configuration with the original plan and explains deviations instead of hiding them inside a single availability average.
11 — Required deliverables
- flow and interface diagram;
- mass-power-time budget with margins;
- nominal and post-incident timelines;
- assumption and source register;
- argued final decision.
12 — Assessment rubric
40%: calculation and unit consistency; 20%: interface treatment; 15%: margins and degraded mode; 15%: human factors and procedure; 10%: source quality and separation of data, assumptions and scenarios. For this mission, the criterion is applied explicitly to « The first thirty sols: move from landing to a stable base ».