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

[Ron Baalke]

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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