Human Exploration Assessment for Outer Solar System Worlds

A decision model dataset supporting a manuscript on applying Value-Focused Thinking to evaluate outer solar system destinations for human exploration. The data was shared by author Fan Bu via Harvard Dataverse to accompany the academic publication. It was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze the decision model's criteria weights to understand priorities for selecting outer solar system destinations.
• Compare the evaluated scores or rankings for different celestial bodies (e.g., moons of Jupiter or Saturn) based on the model's features.
• Validate the Value-Focused Thinking methodology by examining the structured values, objectives, and attributes defined in the data.
• Replicate or extend the assessment by applying the provided model data to new candidate worlds or updated mission parameters.

Strengths

• Data is directly linked to a peer-reviewed academic manuscript, ensuring research relevance.
• Dataset was updated in 2026, indicating recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Unknown row count and column structure prevents assessment of dataset scale and dimensionality.
• Lack of sample data or column names obscures the specific variables and metrics available for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Harvard Dataverse, authored by Fan Bu.

Collection Method

Created for and shared alongside the academic manuscript 'Applying Value-Focused Thinking to Assess Outer Solar System Worlds for Human Exploration'.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-30.

Geography

Outer Solar System (celestial bodies beyond the asteroid belt).