Wawrzyniak, G. | Search NASA

NASA NTRS2010

Solar Sail Propulsion: Enabling New Capabilities for Heliophysics

Solar sails can play a critical role in enabling solar and heliophysics missions. Solar sail technology within NASA is currently at 80% of TRL-6, suitable for an in-flight technology demonstration. It is conceivable that an initial demonstration could carry scientific payloads that, depending on the type of mission, are commensurate with the goals of the three study panels of the 2010 Heliophysics Survey. Follow-on solar sail missions, leveraging advances in solar sail technology to support Heliophysics Survey goals, would then be feasible. This white paper reports on a sampling of missions enabled by solar sails, the current state of the technology, and what funding is required to advance the current state of technology such that solar sails can enable these missions

Johnson, L.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Stardust Entry: Landing and Population Hazards in Mission Planning and Operations

The 385 kg Stardust mission was launched on Feb 7, 1999 on a mission to collect samples from the tail of comet Wild 2 and from interplanetary space. Stardust returned to Earth in the early morning of January 15, 2006. The sample return capsule landed in the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) southwest of Salt Lake City. Because Stardust was landing on Earth, hazard analysis was required by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, UTTR, and the Stardust Project to ensure the safe return of the landing capsule along with the safety of people, ground assets, and aircraft. This paper focuses on the requirements affecting safe return of the capsule and safety of people on the ground by investigating parameters such as probability of impacting on UTTR, casualty expectation, and probability of casualty. This paper introduces the methods for the calculation of these requirements and shows how they affected mission planning, site selection, and mission operations. By analyzing these requirements before and during entry it allowed for the selection of a robust landing point that met all of the requirements during the actual landing event.

Desai, P.↗