Maintainable design for Space Station Freedom

Abstract

Space Station Freedom poses a unique challenge from the standpoint-of-logistical support and maintainability. There is limited on-orbit stowage volume available for supply of replacement parts for critical systems, and crew time required for maintenance and repair of on-board systems is an extremely valuable commodity. These considerations, plus the high cost of ground-to-orbit resupply, give special importance to the consideration of maintainability in system design. Use of common parts and system redundancy have important influences on logistics and maintenance requirements, and the requirements for specialized crew training and tools are directly related to system design for maintainability. This paper describes the approach for maintainable design of Space Station Freedom systems.