Interstellar Supply Chains


I think[1] some new approaches will be needed for "interstellar supply chain management" in the near future. There are too many extraterrestrial factors to change traditional SCM thinking. Time may be a constraint which should be considered before anything about Interstellar SCM in my humble opinion. Let say we want to bring some raw materials from the planet Mars to the Earth. No matter what we are going to use for transportation there will be an opposition problem. This will be a really big problem because computation of transportation time (and costs) will be related to this opposition directly. Another constraint can be the payment system as presented with Galactic payment system by PayPal. If you need a technical review on interplanetary flight, please click here.

File:Piloted-oppurtunity.png
Figure: 2014 primary piloted opportunity [2]

What do you think;

  • is it time to hit the road or
  • is it continuing to be a sci-fi extravagance?

Join me to discuss this topic on #InterstellarSupplyChains.


Some thoughts:

Factors and Conditions Ontological Structure Information Systems
  1. Time
    • Response time
    • Production time
    • Transportation time
      • Position of planets
      • Best effective travel course
      • Using big planets to speed up
    • Return time
  2. Environment
    • Space conditions
    • Packaging for space (and keeping product quality)
    • Cargo space
    • Cargo vulnerability
  3. Complexity
  4. Cost
    • Cost of gravity
  5. Manless process
  1. Product/Service
    • Raw materials
    • Product/Service variety
    • Return products
    • Recycling
  2. Members
    • Trust
    • Trading
    • Politics
    • Market structure
    • Customer needs
    • Competition
  3. Flow
    • Complexity of transportation
    • Irregularity of transportation routes
  4. Operations
    • Production
    • Manufacturing
  1. Communication systems
  2. Tracking/Tracing systems
  3. Code tags

Projects

  1. A supply chain management model proposal for interstellar systems
  2. Martian supply chains



References

  1. Based on my question that sent to ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Interstellar_Supply_Chains_Do_we_need_a_new_SCM_approach
  2. George, L. E. and Kos, L. D., 1998. Interplanetary Mission Design Handbook: Earth-to-Mars Mission Opportunities and Mars-to-Earth Return Opportunities 2009–2024. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Marshall Space Flight Center.