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.