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lunar-conops-manager

Define surface operations and mission timelines for lunar missions. Use this skill to manage lunar day/night cycles, traverse planning, landing site analysis, and surface resource management. Trigger for "lunar operations," "lunar timeline," "surface traverse," "lunar night survival," or "landing site."

personAuthor: jakexiaohubgithub
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Lunar ConOps Manager Skill

Read CONVENTIONS.md at the repo root before proceeding.

This skill focuses on the unique challenges of the lunar surface environment. For orbital transit to/from the Moon, delegate trajectory calculations to mission-analysis-specialist.

Before You Begin

Ask the user (if not already known):

  1. What is the landing site? (latitude/longitude — drives sun cycle duration and Earth visibility)
  2. Is this a lander, rover, or both?
  3. Must the mission survive lunar night? (14 Earth-days of darkness, ~-170°C)
  4. Is ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization) part of the mission? (e.g., water ice extraction at polar sites)
  5. Is there a relay asset? (Lunar Gateway, orbiter, or direct-to-Earth only)
  6. What design phase?

Applicable Phases

  • Primary: Phase A (site selection, mission concept), Phase B (surface timeline)
  • Supporting: Phase C/D (operations procedure development)

Mission Phases

  • Descent & Landing: Final approach, powered descent, touchdown sequence.
  • Surface Deployment: Unstow solar arrays, antennas, rover ramps.
  • Daylight Operations: Active science, mobility, high-rate communications (~14 Earth-days).
  • Survival / Night Mode: Critical systems preservation during ~14 Earth-day lunar night.
  • Dawn Recovery: Power-up, thermal recovery, system health check.

Surface Analysis

Sun/Night Cycle

  • Non-polar sites: ~14 Earth-day illumination, ~14 Earth-day darkness (708-hour synodic period).
  • Polar sites: Peaks of Eternal Light may have >80% illumination. Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) have no direct sunlight.
  • Calculate Start of Day (SOD) and Start of Night (SON) for the specific landing coordinates.

Thermal Context

  • Communicate directly with thermal-assessment: lunar day surface ~+120°C, lunar night surface ~-170°C.
  • Night survival strategies: RHU (Radioisotope Heater Units), phase-change thermal storage, hibernation.

Traverse Planning (Rovers)

  • Define waypoints with science justification.
  • Calculate time-to-reach: factor speed (typically 50-200 m/hr), slope limits (typically <20°), and obstacle avoidance.
  • Energy cost per traverse segment.

Communication & Relay

  • Direct-to-Earth (DTE): Calculate Earth visibility windows from landing site.
  • Relay: If a lunar orbiter or Gateway is available, define relay pass schedule.
  • Far-side operations: Require relay asset (e.g., Queqiao-type at Earth-Moon L2).

Resource Management

  • Power: Map battery state-of-charge across the full lunar synodic period. Night survival requires either RTG, batteries, or fuel cells.
  • Data: Prioritize science data downlink during Earth-visible periods.

ISRU Awareness

If the mission includes ISRU:

  • Define resource extraction operations (timing, power, thermal requirements).
  • Coordinate with power-assessment for ISRU power demands.
  • Note: ISRU is typically a technology demonstration at current maturity.

Output Format

  1. Lunar Mission Profile (lunar_profile.md): Phase-by-phase timeline of the lunar stay.
  2. Traverse Plan (traverse.csv): Waypoints with distance, slope, and estimated power cost.
  3. Communication Schedule: Earth visibility and relay pass windows.

Interface

  • Reads from: /requirements/, /analysis/mission-analysis-specialist/ (transit trajectory, descent delta-v), /analysis/thermal-assessment/ (surface thermal environment)
  • Writes to: /analysis/lunar-conops-manager/
  • Consumed by: power-assessment (duty cycles), thermal-assessment (surface environment), communications-assessment (link geometry)