Track: Decision Sciences

Abstract

Every planet in the universe has its own characteristics. These features make the planets different among themselves. For this reason, all the different properties of the planets must be evaluated at the same time in determining habitable planets. This situation requires a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach. In this study, a list of habitable planets (nine planets and the Moon) has been considered. Seventeen different criteria such as mass, gravity, diameter, density, escape velocity, rotation time, day of length, distance from sun, perihelion, aphelion, orbital period, orbital velocity, orbital inclination, orbital eccentricity, obliquity to orbit, mean temperature and number of satellites are taken into account. The weights of criteria are determined with DEMATEL (The Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) by analyzing the interactions among criteria. Orbital inclination is the criterion with the highest weight and the criterion with the lowest weight is the number of satellites. After weighting the criteria with DEMATEL, VIKOR (VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference to Similarity to Ideal Solution) approaches are used to rank the planets. According to the TOPSIS, Earth is ranked first, Venus ranked second and Mercury ranked third in the order of the most habitable planets. According to the VIKOR method, Earth is ranked first, Mars ranked second and Mercury ranked third in the order of the most habitable planets. Finally, the same calculations are done considering with equal weights and the results are discussed.