November 2009

Lava Tube Analog Mission Testbed
XArc Forms International Team for Lava Tube Analog Mission Testbed for Lunar Science and Human Performance Research

XArc Corp has formed an international team of planetary scientists, caving and mining experts, robotic experts, and human performance experts for lunar lava tube analog mission research. The team will identify research funding to perform research and development of operational scenarios and technologies for an analog mission investigating required science measurements with human performance objectives simulating robotic and human “first contact” with a lunar lava tube. Research objectives are to identify the best path for technology development and how sampling and science can be done on the lunar surface and underground using lava tube analog mission testbeds. The initial proposed geographic location for conducting the analog studies is within the protected area of the Nisga’a Lava Bed in proximity to the Tseax River Cone or Aiyansh Volcano where unmapped lava tubes exist.

The team is comprised of Exploration Architecture Corporation (XArc), San Antonio, TX, USA, responsible for leading team coordination activities and proposal management, lava tube characterization for habitation technology, mission operations, and human performance research sub-team lead; Antarctic Institute of Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, acting as Principal Investigator; Penguin Automated Systems, Inc., Naughton, Ontario, Canada, acting as project lead organization and technology sub-team lead; University of Western Ontario, Center for Planetary Science and Exploration, London, Ontario, Canada, acting as science investigations sub-team lead; MDA, Bampton, Ontario, Canada, responsible for robotics and technology applications; Turquoise Technology Solutions, Montreal, Canada, responsible for logistics, GPS and remote sensing, and management support; and York University, Department of Earth and Space Science & Engineering , Toronto, Ontario, Canada, responsible for science investigations and support.




October 2009

NASA/ASCE Lunar Workshop
XArc Invited to Participate in NASA/ASCE Lunar Site Planning and Construction Workshop

XArc Corp participated in a NASA and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) sponsored workshop on Lunar Site Planning and Construction in Huntsville, AL, October 20-21. The ASCE Aerospace Division, Space Engineering & Construction Committee together with the NASA Constellation Program, Lunar Surface Systems MSFC Advanced Concepts Office hosted the two day workshop to address architectural, engineering and construction issues related to master planning, site preparations, and setup of an international lunar outpost.



60th International Astronautical Congress (IAC)
XArc Selected to Deliver Paper at International Conference in Daejeon, South Korea

XArc Corp is to present on the topic of International Partner collaboration and integration of human space exploration goals into the mission timeline of the NASA Constellation Program. A paper entitled “A Scenario for an International Partner Participant to Provide a Habitation Module to Augment NASA's Lunar Surface Habitation Capability”, will be presented by XArc Corp President and Founder, Sam Ximenes, at the 60th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), October 12-16 in Daejeon, South Korea.

Hosted by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the IAC is a well-established and well-respected conference expected to attract over 4,000 participants, including members of the global space industry, academic researchers, and students from around the world. The theme for the 2009 Congress is Space For Sustainable Peace and Progress. The XArc paper draws on work initially performed in 2008 as part of a XArc Corp client funded effort to describe a process and procedures for Constellation Program international collaboration, and uses the example of an International Partner provided habitation module for augmented habitation capability for lunar surface operations.




September 2009

Near Surface Lunar Dust Instrument
XArc Collaborates with MDA Alliance Space Systems and GoVentures, Inc for Development of a Near Surface Lunar Dust Instrument (NSLDI)

Exploration Architecture Corporation, MDA Alliance Space Systems, and GoVentures, Inc. agree to collaborate on development of a lunar site characterization instrument for measuring solar wind plasma interactions with lunar dust at near surface heights. Development of the NSLDI would allow for flexibility in integration of the instrument as a secondary payload into a variety of governmental agency and/or commercially planned lunar lander missions. High fidelity direct measurement of the charged lunar dust environment to determine electron temperature, density, and electric potential are needed to provide data to serve future mission needs for lunar outpost site development. Characterizing the lunar dusty plasma environment at near surface elevations help mission planners in the identification of optimum landing sites, emplacing infrastructure, and evaluation of alternative dust management and removal techniques.



Lunar Regolith Modeling Analysis Tool
XArc Collaborates with UMich 3D Lab and Plaxis for Development of a Modeling Analysis Tool for Simulation of Lunar Regolith in Excavation and Construction

Exploration Architecture Corporation, the University of Michigan 3D Lab, and Plaxis, BV of the Netherlands, collaborate for development of a modeling analysis tool for simulation of lunar regolith (lunar soil) in excavation and construction. Development of the modeling tool is to provide visualization and design optimization assessments of lunar surface excavation systems based on mechanical properties and dynamic interactions of lunar regolith. The team will use the PLAXIS-3D terrestrial soil mechanics models as a starting point and adapt to known regolith characteristics to provide first order of magnitude characterization of regolith flow under 1/6 g conditions and to allow visualization assessments of regolith displacements, digging depth, rake angle and safety factors.



WEX Foundation
XArc to Lead Space Education Project for K-12 Space Exploration STEM Curricula Development for the WEX Foundation

Exploration Architecture Corporation will serve as Principal Investigator and Program Manager for the WEX Foundation's K-12 education project for development of space exploration STEM curricula for special needs students and historically under represented student population groups.

The WEX Foundation (WEXF), located in San Antonio, TX, is a not-for-profit 501(c) education organization that supports secondary education for historically underrepresented and underserved student populations. The WEXF mission is to promote, encourage and support the convergence of technology and education as applied to new visions for human space exploration and its long term implications for the educational development of the nations next generation of scientist, engineers, mathematicians and technologist, beginning with K-12 education. Its focus is to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education for K-12 curriculum development; improving STEM teaching and student comprehension in school districts and areas were students have been traditionally underserved and underrepresented in institutions of higher education to prepare and encourage low-income, first generation college bound students.

To service the project goals WEXF assembled a uniquely qualified team of local San Antonio educational organizations and education-related companies for project partnership. The content for the project's space exploration curricula will be developed by a team consisting of Northwest Alta Vista College Texas Institute for Education Robotics (TIER), PCI Educational Publishing, Numedeon, Inc, Exploration Architecture Corporation (XArc), and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Office of P-20 Initiatives, plus a number of subject matter experts in the fields of astronomy and aerospace sciences and consulting experts in Aerospace and Science Education/Instructional Design.




August 2009

Aerospace Green Business Stimulus Model
XArc Collaborates with UTSA Center for Community and Business Research

Exploration Architecture Corporation and the Institute for Economic Development, Center for Community and Business Research of the University of Texas at San Antonio (CCBR) collaborate to further develop XArc’s theoretical model for economic stimulus. The research objective is to test the model’s assumptions by scaling the model for use as a tool for establishing industrial sector stimulus in times of economic crises. The research focus is construction of an economic stimulus model for green entrepreneurship within the aerospace industrial sector. The research addresses a small business stimulus model for organizational transition to green business practices and green technology implementation.




July 2009

NASA Constellation Program Ground Operations Simulator
XArc Team Proposes Development of a Ground Operations Commodities Architecture Simulator

Exploration Architecture Corporation in collaboration with Brahe Corporation and Flexsim Software Products, Inc. (Flexsim), propose development of a process flow visualization model for commodities (LO2, LH2, GN2, GHe) joint ground operations at the NASA Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The visualization model could be used as a dynamic tool for simulating the end-to-end architecture of commodity production, storage, transportation, delivery, transfer, and recovery operations. With the Flexsim software platform, a discreet event simulator is used to perform visualization analysis and assessments for commodities infrastructure development improvements by simulating infrastructure and process improvement scenarios for the operational interactions of the end-to-end commodities architecture of NASA Constellation Program launch vehicles and Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) commodities consumption.




June 2009

Lunar Surface Systems Risk Study
XArc Delivers Lunar Outpost Risk Study

XArc Corp delivers risk assessment for Lunar Surface Systems Operational Risk Study. XArc Corp President and Founder, Sam Ximenes presented to NASA's Lunar Surface Systems Project Office findings of its assigned risk topic which addressed the issues associated with surface preparation of the landing zone in a lunar outpost buildup campaign. XArc's assessment of risk potential for "Inadequate Landing Zone Surface Preparation" is part of an overall risk study performed by the Space Enterprise Council (SEC) Space Transportation Working Group (STWG). The STWG study team went through a rigorous process for selecting operational risks associated with a particular lunar outpost deployment campaign, and identified a set of thirteen top risks in priority order. Team members were assigned ownership for the risk topics based on their particular interests. Each risk lead applied their respective risk assessment methodology and recommended mitigations in conducting the overall study.

XArc developed a Visualization Analysis Sequencing Technique (VAST™) to play out the operational scenario and help visualize the sequence of risks along the way toward how the prepared landing zone gets to its ready state in time for the Initial Surface Capability (ISC) for the landing of a crew return mission. VAST™ provides visual “snapshots” of the sequence of an operational process simulated over time to drive out and understand complex variables in systems planning. In this case an illustrated sequencing of the outpost buildup was created with pictorial snapshots of the four lunar missions leading up to ISC. The pictorial analysis for each mission served to identify and rank the operational risks.




May 2009

Pedestrian Flow Simulations
XArc and Savannah Simulations Submit White Paper for Modeling Crowd Flow Control

Exploration Architecture Corporation and Savannah Simulations AG, of Herrliberg, Switzerland, submit a White Paper to the Department of Homeland Security's Standoff Technology Integration and Demonstration Program (STIDP). The paper addresses application of simulation software for pedestrian flows for modeling crowd flow control during standoff/remote explosives screening. The paper describes the use of “SimWalk”, an advanced modeling and simulation software application for modeling crowd flow control as a viable platform for characterizing pedestrian flow, and for integration with deployed candidate standoff and remotely operated explosives countermeasures architectures.




April 2009

Lunar Surface Systems Risk Study
XArc Joins Aerospace Industry Team to Produce Lunar Outpost Risk Study

Exploration Architecture Corporation joins an aerospace industry team conducting a Lunar Surface Systems Operational Risk Study for NASA’s Lunar Surface Systems Project Offfice. The US industry team, comprised of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, ATK, Honeywell, Hamilton Sundstrand, ILC Dover, United Space Alliance, Draper Labs, and Oceaneering Space Systems are members of the Space Enterprise Council (SEC) Space Transportation Working Group (STWG) providing industry support to NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Constellation Program.



2008



December 2008

Jackson & Tull Proposal Support
XArc Provides Proposal Management Services to Jackson & Tull

Exploration Architecture Corporation is retained to provide proposal support services to aerospace firm Jackson & Tull, of Seabrook, MD. XArc will provide business development and subject matter expertise for various competitive pursuits of the company, as well as assume the role of Proposal Manager for its team pursuing the NASA Ames Space Technology Research and Development (STRAD) Contract. 




October 2008

International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS)
XArc sponsors panel session at 2008 ISPCS on "Key Issues Related to Evolution of Orbital Vehicles for Human Rated Spaceflight "

Exploration Architecture Corporation will participate in the 2008 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight as a sponsor of the two day event to be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Oct 22-23, at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. XArc's sponsorship of the symposiums panel session on "Key Issues Related to Evolution of Orbital Vehicles for Human Rated Spaceflight" will be the second year XArc has elected to support this key industry forum. Panel speakers will discuss the current state and future of orbital access to space, who is prepared now to fly, what the business cases are, and the future of collaboration between government and commercial entities. The session is intended to bring out various points of view on several important topics related to the suborbital business, including safety considerations and requirements for launch and flight; Point-to-Point transportation; the passenger experience; cooperation between government and commercial enterprises; and strategic directions.




July 2008

NASA Massively Multiplayer Online Game
XArc Team Proposes NASA Virtual Environment for Space Exploration Education

Exploration Architecture Corporation proposes a $12.5 million investment for development of a NASA sponsored Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) Game about space exploration for enhancing STEM education outreach. The MMO, dubbed "NASA Xplorer", will function as a persistent, synthetic environment (virtual world) in a game genre of Realtime-Action-Strategy, and is projected to achieve a subscriber base at peak acceptance of over 1.5 million user accounts. Development of the MMO game will be through an Industry-Academia-Government partnership. The XArc team is comprised of XARC Games, LLC, San Antonio, TX, acting as producer; Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, responsible for educational content; and Metaversatility Inc, San Antonio, TX, responsible for game development.  A game publisher will be announced if the XArc team is selected by NASA to produce the MMO with licensing rights to commercialize the product.




June 2008

NASA Lunar Surface Systems
XArc Forms Development Team for Lunar Outpost Concept Design

Exploration Architecture Corporation announces the formation of a design team comprised of leading aerospace firms to support development of an "International Lunar Interconnect Node" (ISLIN) concept for a Lunar Outpost. The ISLIN concept (pronounced Island), is proposed as a first element building block for optimizing growth options in the eventual buildup of a Lunar Outpost. NASA plans to return to the moon and establish an Outpost by 2020. The initial effort of the design team will focus on a design evaluation study to assess viability of the ISLIN concept as a core habitation element for Lunar Outpost construction. The study will assess minimum functionality of the ISLIN structure, its subsystems, and external interfaces to other surface system elements such as an Altair Lunar Lander Common Airlock, International Laboratory Modules, and Pressurized Rovers. 

The ISLIN design team consists of Exploration Architecture Corporation (XArc), San Antonio, TX, serves as Principal Investigator and responsible for overall Study Management and provides ISLIN Concept Architecture Configuration & Planning; Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio, TX, responsible for ISLIN Structural & Materials Analysis; Paragon Space Development Corporation (Paragon), Tucson, AZ, responsible for ISLIN ECLSS and Surface EVA; and Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering (Wyle), Houston, TX, responsible for ISLIN Crew Systems, Human Factors, and Support Systems.




February 2008

NASA Altair Lunar Lander
XArc Proposes Altair Lunar Lander Airlock Reusability Study

Exploration Architecture Corporation proposes a NASA study to evaluate reusability of a common airlock for NASA's Altair Lunar Lander development program.  Study goals are to assess survivability of a minimum design airlock during long term dormancy on the lunar surface (post-mission) to determine viability of re-using the airlock for surface systems integration, e.g., integrated with a habitation module during the Lunar Outpost construction phase. The proposed study is comprised of three components including a survivability assessment, a refurbishment assessment, and a flyable design upgrade assessment.




January 2008

Jackson & Tull Consulting Support
XArc Provides Consulting Support Services to Jackson & Tull for NASA CTSC Bid

Exploration Architecture Corporation will provide consulting support services to aerospace firm Jackson & Tull, of Seabrook, MD, for lunar base scenario development in their proposal bid for the NASA Constellation Technical Services Contract (CTSC). XArc will provide a Subject Matter Expert to be the lead author addressing the RFP section requirements of "Scenario #4 - Systems Engineering & Integration and Test & Integration for International Partner Habitation Module for Lunar Surface Operations".



2007


12/12/2007

Wanted: Space Plane Demonstrator
by Pierre Sparaco, Aviation Week and Space Technology

December 10, 2007, XArc Senior Associate, Francis Winisdoerffer, interviewed by Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine on the European outlook for commercial space and a possible European Space Plane demonstrator.

XArc-Architecture for New Worlds

XArc-Architecture for New Worlds

XArc-Architecture for New Worlds

XArc-Architecture for New Worlds

08/02/2007

Spaceport America
Winning team selected for design and construction
of Spaceport America Terminal and Hangar Facility

Exploration Architecture Corporation is proud to announce our successful bid for the Spaceport America Virgin Galactic Terminal as a member of the multinational team led by URS and Foster + Partners. As the twenty-first century beckons the private market into space, those with vision are stepping forward to build a gateway. Our team is uniquely qualified to meet the challenges of this historic undertaking with the elegance, innovation and expertise it demands. XArc and Synthesis International assumed the lead role in Program Analysis as space consultants in the areas of operations assessment, crew training & astronaut experience, space education technology, and future growth considerations.

XArc-Architecture for New Worlds

07/25/2007

Space Odyssey Institute, Beijing, China
XArc President and Founder participates in tour of Chinese Civil Space Industry

Exploration Architecture Corporation, President and Founder, Sam Ximenes, was selected by the International Space University to attend it’s inaugural session of the Space Odyssey Institute (SOI), held in Beijing, China, 8 - 20 July 2007. The two-week session for experienced professionals from mid-level to senior leadership positions focused on this year’s theme of "Emerging Space Nations", by learning more about China’s development of a strong aerospace industry and vision of opening the space frontier. Chinese aerospace leaders provided a unique insight into China’s civil space industry through session discussions on strategic vision, policy development, global implications, and high-level architecture development. Professional visits to impressive Chinese space facilities such as the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, China Academy of Space Technology, and others accented the Chinese message of international cooperation and resolve to be a leader in space exploration.

XArc-Architecture for New Worlds