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Tara Polsgrove

Publications and source records attributed to Tara Polsgrove.

10 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

TPSAS-NF1676L-31282-DND

Several technology investments, beyond those used for robotic missions, are required to develop Mars human scale Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) systems. In a resource-constrained environment, studies play the critical role of identifying the most feasible technical paths and high payoff investments. One such NASA multi-directorate, multi-center study, is called the Entry, Descent and Landing Architecture Study (EDLAS). This paper presents a summary of phase two of the study conducted from October 2016 to September 2017. Study ground rules and assumptions are provided by NASA?s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) and include a Mars architecture and Mars surface lander payload manifests. Four unique entry technologies with the potential to deliver a specified 20 t human scale payload to the Mars surface are considered for analysis. Two of these techniques are evolutionary rigid vehicles, derived from robotic capsule missions and the space shuttle. Likewise, two revolutionary deployable vehicles are considered, the Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology (ADEPT) and Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD). This paper summarizes updates to the entry technology designs, the analysis motivation and approach, figures of merit by which the configurations are compared, and results of the analyses. Finally, findings are presented with the recommendation that two of the four configurations, one evolutionary and one revolutionary technology, continue to be studied in future human scale EDL studies.

Alicia Dwyer Cianciolo↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Human Lunar Landing Strategy

In early 2020, NASA's Human Landing System Program made awards to a set of American companies to compete for the design, delivery and demonstration of an integrated human landing system to land the next Americans near the South Pole of the Moon by 2024. Awards were made utilizing the NextSTEP Broad Agency Announcement procurement mechanism and kicked off a seven-month Certification Baseline Review, leading up to a Continuation Review and possible down-select by NASA at the end of 2020. This paper discusses the work that has been done thus far for the rapid development of a human landing system to safely carry the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface. It will also provide a preview of the work that remains ahead for the program. Keywords: Artemis, Human Landing System, Mars, Moon, Propulsion

Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Initial and Sustained Artemis Human Landing Systems

On March 26, 2019, in keeping with President Trump’s Space Policy Directive-1, Vice President Pence charged NASA with landing the first woman and the next man on the South Pole of the Moon by 2024, followed by a sustained presence on and around the Moon by2028. NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) Program is responsible for the final mode of transportation in deep space that will carry humans to and from the surface of the Moon, to be designed and developed by American companies for NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. This paper examines the approach for Artemis human landing systems for both the initial missions and future sustained missions. While achieving the 2024 goal requires a focus on speed and the use of mature technologies, planning toward sustained operations to and from the lunar surface requires a focus on reliability and reusability. The two approaches, however, are not mutually exclusive, as demonstrated by the HLS prime contractors’ integrated lander system proposals. On April 30, 2020, NASA announced that Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, Dynetics (a Leidos company) of Huntsville, Alabama, and SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, were the awardees for NASA’s Human Landing System contracts under Appendix H of the NextSTEP-2 Broad Agency Announcement. The companies began work in a 10-month base period during which NASA teams worked with the companies to streamline the review of required products and to share the agency’s expertise in human spaceflight systems development. Following the base period, NASA will determine which companies will develop the human landers for the initial missions, including the 2024 landing, and which companies will develop landers for future sustained missions toward the end of the decade.

Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Artemis Human Landing Systems

The Human Landing System (HLS) is the mode of transportation that will take astronauts to the lunar surface in NASA's Artemis lunar exploration program. On early missions, the astronauts will live inside the pressurized crew cabin portion of the lander for up to a week. The HLS program, based at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is working closely with commercial partners to build innovative and technically advanced lunar landers, leveraging decades of human spaceflight experience and the speed of the commercial sector. In addition to the NextSTEP-2 Broad Agency Announcement Appendix H Option A contract that includes one uncrewed and one crewed demonstration mission to the lunar surface, the HLS program is taking steps to establish a regular cadence of crewed missions to the surface of the Moon. This paper will discuss the HLS program’s latest development activities.

Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Artemis Human Landing Systems

The Human Landing System (HLS) is the mode of transportation that will take astronauts to the lunar surface in NASA's Artemis lunar exploration program. On early missions, the astronauts will live inside the pressurized crew cabin portion of the lander for up to a week. The HLS program, based at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is working closely with commercial partners to build innovative and technically advanced lunar landers, leveraging decades of human spaceflight experience and the speed of the commercial sector. In addition to the NextSTEP-2 Broad Agency Announcement Appendix H Option A contract that includes one uncrewed and one crewed demonstration mission to the lunar surface, the HLS program is taking steps to establish a regular cadence of crewed missions to the surface of the Moon. This paper will discuss the HLS program’s latest development activities.

Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Human Landing System

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Tara Polsgrove↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Landing Humans and Human-Class Cargo on the Moon and Mars

For more than a decade, efforts have been ongoing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, to land humans and large, human-rated cargo on planetary bodies like the Moon and Mars. This work continues today under the Center’s Lander Programs (LP) office. Recognizing MSFC’s heritage, NASA stood up the Human Landing System program at the Center in August 2019 to be responsible for spacecrafts that will land the next American astronauts on the Moon under Artemis. With work well underway for the historic Artemis III mission to land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface through the Appendix H Option A contract with SpaceX, LP is focused on the development of landers that will support the Agency’s long-term Artemis efforts at the Moon and NASA’s future at Mars. In March 2022, NASA announced its plan to solicit a second industry provider in addition to SpaceX to develop and demonstrate a lander that meets the program’s extended set of requirements for missions beyond Artemis III. Under the umbrella of Sustaining Lunar Development, these requirements will meet NASA’s needs for recurring, long-term access to the lunar surface, such as accommodating an increased crew size and delivering more mass to the surface. Additionally, NASA plans to leverage crewed lander development activities to procure and certify the design of landers capable of human-class cargo delivery. This paper will examine how the Lander Program office at MSFC is bridging from the initial demonstration phase of development for the Human Landing System program to the Sustaining Lunar Development phase and feeding forward to Mars. The requirements and lines of effort for landing humans and human class cargo will be discussed, as well as near-term and future milestones for the program.

Lemuel Carpenter↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Initial Artemis Human Landing System

In April 2020, NASA announced the selection of three companies to begin the initial phase of development of human landing systems to take the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface through NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. The selected companies were a Blue Origin-led team with Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and Draper; Dynetics (a Leidos company); and SpaceX. Contracts were awarded shortly after, kicking off a ten-month base period during which NASA worked closely with each company to finalize functional and performance requirements, confirm lander development standards, and establish baseline designs, schedules, and management plans for contract execution and human spaceflight certification. At the end of the base period, in the Spring of 2021, NASA awarded a single follow-on Option A contract to SpaceX to continue their work on Human Landing System (HLS) Starship development. Currently NASA and SpaceX are working collaboratively on Option A which will ultimately culminate in one uncrewed and one crewed mission to the lunar surface under Artemis III. This paper will provide a look at the Option A phase of development for the Human Landing System Program, including publicly available information on SpaceX’s HLS Starship design as well as near-term and future milestones for HLS and the Artemis program.

Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Human Landing System: A Sustaining Presence on the Moon

For more than a decade, efforts have been ongoing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, to land humans and cargo on planetary bodies like the Moon and Mars and today this work continues under the Center’s Lander Programs (LP) office. In August of 2019, NASA stood up the Human Landing System (HLS) program to be responsible for spacecrafts that will land astronauts on the Moon under Artemis. Work is well underway with the historic Artemis III mission to land the first Americans on the lunar surface in more than 50 years through the Appendix H Option A [1] contract with SpaceX. In November, NASA awarded SpaceX an Option B modification to its existing HLS Appendix H contract, which will further develop its Starship HLS to meet NASA’s sustaining lander requirements for lunar missions beyond Artemis III. In September of 2022, NASA issued an HLS Sustaining Lunar Development solicitation under the NextSTEP-2 Appendix P Broad Agency Announcement [2] asking a second provider, in addition to SpaceX, to develop and demonstrate a lander that meets the program’s extended set of requirements for missions beyond Artemis III. Under the umbrella of Sustaining Lunar Development [3], these requirements will meet NASA’s needs for recurring, long-term access to the lunar surface. Proposals were received from industry late last year and NASA is planning to award an Appendix P contract in the summer of 2023. This paper will provide an update of the Lander Program office’s progress and will discuss how the program is bridging from the initial demonstration phase of development for the Human Landing System program to the Sustaining Lunar Development phase. The paper will include publicly available information on SpaceX’s Starship HLS design as well as near-term and future milestones for HLS and the Artemis program.

Lisa Watson-Morgan↗