REMAINING USEFUL LIFE PREDICTION MODEL OF THE SPACE STATION

Space station is a very complex system, and its remaining useful life will be affected by the key equipment, cosmonauts' maintenance activities as well as space environments. It is important for the operation management of a space station to predict its remaining useful life (RUL). A valid RUL prediction model is the key foundation for this issue, which motivates the research presented in this paper. Firstly, different types of space station life are defined. Secondly, the function and performance requirements as well as the operation mission program of the space station are analysed, which are further used to confirm the model development precondition. A life prediction model is then proposed by synthetically taking account of the safety, reliability and maintainability restrictions. Finally, the data requirement for supporting the RUL, prediction is determined. Based on this work, a comprehensive procedure for RUL prediction model development is constructed for the operation management engineers of the space station. If the data of the development and operation is adequate, RUL prediction of the space station can be well implemented, and can be further leveraged to support the space station operation management.