Optimization of Experimental Lunar Payloads

The scientific exploration of the moon requires that a number of experiments be conducted for the purpose of investigating the many questions and hypotheses posed by nearly every discipline in the scientific community. The broad interest in this effort, the limitations of time and resources for conducting the program, and the complex engineering constraints imposed by the logistics system justify the development of an effective method of making optimum selection of experiments according to the most meaningful criteria. The developed method provides a determination of alternate optimum solutions from which scientific authority may choose. Basic lunar scientific objectives, as determined by NASA interdisciplinary panels, serve as inputs to the system. The relative worth of each objective according to scientific merit is determined by a stratified, intradisciplinary sample of the scientific community using a modified majority-rule technique. The experiments are then ordered according to their contribution to the ordered objectives. A subjective programming method provides alternate payload choices that optimize the scientific merit of the experiments within the engineering constraints of a lunar IMjdoad. An example is presented that simulates the use of an algorithm for sdecting an optimum experiment pajdoad.