Packing for the Moon: New Software Aims to Track Supplies This
graphic shows a series of destination nodes within an
interplanetary supply chain. CREDIT: MIT Space Logistics Program
If an outhouse on the Moon ran out of toilet paper, an intrepid
settler might have to waddle about 240,000 miles to get a fresh
roll back on Earth. To make sure that doesn't happen, scientists
have developed a software tool that tracks and ensures a
reliable stream of necessities from the Earth to the Moon.
Released this month, the computer model, called SpaceNet 1.3,
will be critical, say the scientists, for establishing a human
presence on the Moon by 2020, as laid out in the space vision by
President George W. Bush in 2004. "The further away you get from
Earth, the riskier it gets when there are failures of any
equipment or shortages of consumables," said co-researcher
Olivier de Weck of MIT. "There aren't many back-up options." De
Weck and MIT's David Simchi-Levi developed SpaceNet. The
software evaluates several hypothetical