[meteorite-list] NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Completes Design Milestone

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2016 19:32:06 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201608220232.u7M2W6C7016096_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6593

NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Completes Design Milestone
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 15, 2016

Following a key program review, NASA approved the Asteroid Redirect Mission
(ARM) to proceed to the next phase of design and development for the mission's
robotic segment. ARM is a two-part mission that will integrate robotic
and crewed spacecraft operations in the proving ground of deep space to
demonstrate key capabilities needed for NASA's journey to Mars.

The milestone, known as Key Decision Point-B, or KDP-B, was conducted
in July and formally approved by agency management Aug. 15. It is one
in a series of project lifecycle milestones that every spaceflight mission
for the agency passes as it progresses toward launch. At KDP-B, NASA established
the content, cost, and schedule commitments for Phase B activities.

Earlier this year, NASA updated the target launch date for the robotic
mission to December 2021 in order to incorporate acquisition of industry
robotic spacecraft development into the project schedule. To reflect this
new target date, the project's cost cap was increased at KDP-B from $1.25
billion to $1.4 billion. This figure does not include the launch vehicle
or the post-launch operations phase. The crewed segment, targeted for
launch in 2026, remains in an early mission concept phase, or pre-formulation.

ARM will demonstrate advanced, high-power, high-throughput solar electric
propulsion; advanced autonomous high-speed proximity operations at a low-gravity
planetary body; controlled touchdown and liftoff with a multi-ton mass
from a low-gravity planetary body, astronaut spacewalk activities for
sample selection, extraction, containment and return; and mission operations
of integrated robotic and crewed vehicle stack -- all key components of
future in-space operations for human missions to Mars.

During Phase B of the robotic mission, the program will develop a baseline
mission design to meet requirements consistent with NASA's direction on
risk, cost and schedule, and will conduct an independent review of the
baseline project design.

"This is an exciting milestone for the Asteroid Redirect Mission," said
NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot. "Not only is ARM leveraging
agency-wide capabilities, it will test a number of new technologies already
in development."

Completing KDP-B is a catalyst for increased external involvement in the
robotic mission development, explained Michele Gates, program director
for ARM at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"Since its early formulation, NASA has invited mission concept feedback
and development ideas from the planetary science community, general public,
U.S. and global industry, and international partners," said Gates. "With
KDP-B under our belt, ARM can now move forward to define partnerships
and opportunities for long-term engagement."

The robotic ARM project, led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California, will issue a request for proposals for the spacecraft to a
set of aerospace companies that previously worked with the ARM robotic
design team on a six-month study of spacecraft concepts to meet mission
requirements. KDP-B serves as authority for JPL to proceed with the next
procurement phase.

NASA plans to issue a solicitation in September that will include a call
for partner-provided payloads on the robotic flight system. This call
for partner-provided payloads is in addition to potential cooperation
under discussion with the Italian Space Agency. NASA will provide spacecraft
integration, power, data storage and communication capabilities for selected
payloads, which the agency will choose based on contributions to both
partner goals and ARM objectives, with consideration for those that may
support risk reduction for the mission.

This solicitation also will include a membership call for an ARM Investigation
Team, which will be a multidisciplinary group of U.S. industry, academia,
government, and international members. The Investigation Team will operate
on an initial three-to-five year term, providing technical expertise to
the ARM robotic and crewed project teams.

The team will conduct analyses of spacecraft and mission design, and investigate
concepts to support robotic mission objectives, including overall science,
planetary defense, asteroid resource use and deep-space capability demonstrations.
Led out of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, the Investigation
Team work will continue some of the research conducted by the ARM Formulation
Assessment and Support Team, which helped define mission concepts and
inform mission requirements and risks over a three-month period in 2015.

The robotic component of ARM will demonstrate the world's most advanced
and most efficient solar electric propulsion system as it travels to a
near-Earth asteroid (NEA). NEAs are asteroids that are fewer than 121
million miles (1.3 AU) from the sun at the closest point in their orbit.
Although the target asteroid is not expected to be officially selected
until 2020, NASA is using 2008 EV5 as the reference asteroid while the
search continues for potential alternates.

A target asteroid such as 2008 EV5 is particularly appealing to the scientific,
exploration, and industrial communities because it is a primitive, C-type
(carbonaceous) asteroid, believed to be rich in volatiles, water and organic
compounds. The ability to extract core samples from the captured boulder
will allow us to evaluate how its composition varies with depth and could
unlock clues to the origins of our solar system. Astronaut sampling and
potential commercial activities could indicate the value of C-type asteroids
for commercial mining purposes, which in turn could have significant impacts
on how deep space missions are designed in the future.

After collecting a multi-ton boulder from the asteroid, the robotic spacecraft
will slowly redirect the boulder to an orbit around the moon, using the
moon's gravity for an assist, where NASA plans to conduct a series of
proving ground missions in the 2020s. There, astronauts will be able to
select, extract, collect and return samples from the multi-ton asteroid
mass, and conduct other human-robotic and spacecraft operations in the
proving ground that will validate concepts for NASA's journey to Mars.

News Media Contact
DC Agle
818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

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Received on Sun 21 Aug 2016 10:32:06 PM PDT