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NASA NTRS2015

The Global Exploration Roadmap: Opportunities for Lunar Science

The Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) has been developed by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG comprised of 14 space agencies) to define various pathways to getting humans beyond low Earth orbit and eventually to Mars. Such pathways include visiting asteroids or the Moon before going on to Mars. This document has been written at a very high level and many details are still to be determined. However, a number of important papers regarding international space exploration can form a basis for this document.This poster will focus on developing the Lunar Vicinity scenario by adding detail via mapping a number of recent reportsdocuments into the GER. The documents highlighted here are in no way meant to be all encompassing and other documents can and should be added, (e.g., the JAXA Space Exploration Roadmap). This exercise is intended to demonstrate that existing documents can be mapped into the GER despite the major differences in granularity, and that this mapping is a way to promote broader national and international buy-in to the Lunar Vicinity scenario.The documents used here are: the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Panel on Exploration report on developing a global space exploration program, the Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs) report from the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), the Lunar Exploration Roadmap developed by LEAG, the National Research Council report Scientific Context for the Exploration of the Moon (SCEM), and two journal articles, the scientific rationale for resuming lunar surface exploration, and the astrobiological benefits of human space exploration.In addition, the ISECG is in the process of developing a Science White Paper (SWP) to accompany the next edition of the GER, due in late 2016. The SWP will be an important tool to communicate science which will be able to be accomplished at human exploration destinations to policymakers. This abstract will discuss the process of developing this SWP and ways in which the global science community can become engaged in its development.

Schmidt, Gregory↗
NASA NTRS1991

Analysis and interpretation of diffuse x-ray emission using data from the Einstein satellite

An ambitious program to create a powerful and accessible archive of the HEAO-2 Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) database was outlined. The scientific utility of that database for studies of diffuse x ray emissions was explored. Technical and scientific accomplishments are reviewed. Three papers were presented which have major new scientific findings relevant to the global structure of the interstellar medium and the origin of the cosmic x ray background. An all-sky map of diffuse x ray emission was constructed.

Helfand, David J.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Scientific Rationale for Saturn's in Situ Exploration

Remote sensing observations meet some limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. A remarkable example of the superiority of in situ probe measurements is illustrated by the exploration of Jupiter, where key measurements such as the determination of the noble gases׳ abundances and the precise measurement of the helium mixing ratio have only been made available through in situ measurements by the Galileo probe. This paper describes the main scientific goals to be addressed by the future in situ exploration of Saturn placing the Galileo probe exploration of Jupiter in a broader context and before the future probe exploration of the more remote ice giants. In situ exploration of Saturn's atmosphere addresses two broad themes that are discussed throughout this paper: first, the formation history of our solar system and second, the processes at play in planetary atmospheres. In this context, we detail the reasons why measurements of Saturn's bulk elemental and isotopic composition would place important constraints on the volatile reservoirs in the protosolar nebula. We also show that the in situ measurement of CO (or any other disequilibrium species that is depleted by reaction with water) in Saturn's upper troposphere may help constraining its bulk O/H ratio. We compare predictions of Jupiter and Saturn's bulk compositions from different formation scenarios, and highlight the key measurements required to distinguish competing theories to shed light on giant planet formation as a common process in planetary systems with potential applications to most extrasolar systems. In situ measurements of Saturn's stratospheric and tropospheric dynamics, chemistry and cloud-forming processes will provide access to phenomena unreachable to remote sensing studies. Different mission architectures are envisaged, which would benefit from strong international collaborations, all based on an entry probe that would descend through Saturn's stratosphere and troposphere under parachute down to a minimum of 10 bar of atmospheric pressure. We finally discuss the science payload required on a Saturn probe to match the measurement requirements.

Galileo↗
NASA NTRS1993

Dynamics Explorer 2: Continued FPI and NACS instrument data analysis and associated scientific activity at the University of Michigan

The grant entitled 'Dynamics Explorer 2 - continued FPI and NACS instrument data analysis and associated scientific activity at the University of Michigan' is a continuation of a grant that began with instrument development for the Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE 2) satellite. Over the years, many publications and presentations at scientific meetings have occurred under the aegis of this grant. This present report details the progress that has been made in the final three years of the grant. In these last 4 years of the grant 26 papers have been published or are in press and about 10 more are in preparation or have been submitted. A large number of presentations have been made in the same time span: 36 are listed in Appendix 2. Evidence of the high educational utility of this research is indicated by the list of Ph. D. and M. S. theses that have been completed in the last 3 years that have involved work connected with NAG5-465. The structure of this report is as follows: a brief synopsis of the aims of the grant NAG5-465 is given in the next section; then there is a summary of the scientific accomplishments that have occurred over the grant period; last, we make some brief concluding remarks. Reprints of articles that have recently appeared in refereed journals are appended to the end of this document.

Burns, Alan↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Biomolecule Sequencer Project: Nanopore Sequencing as a Dual-Use Tool for Crew Health and Astrobiology Investigations

Human missions to Mars will fundamentally transform how the planet is explored, enabling new scientific discoveries through more sophisticated sample acquisition and processing than can currently be implemented in robotic exploration. The presence of humans also poses new challenges, including ensuring astronaut safety and health and monitoring contamination. Because the capability to transfer materials to Earth will be extremely limited, there is a strong need for in situ diagnostic capabilities. Nucleotide sequencing is a particularly powerful tool because it can be used to: (1) mitigate microbial risks to crew by allowing identification of microbes in water, in air, and on surfaces; (2) identify optimal treatment strategies for infections that arise in crew members; and (3) track how crew members, microbes, and mission-relevant organisms (e.g., farmed plants) respond to conditions on Mars through transcriptomic and genomic changes. Sequencing would also offer benefits for science investigations occurring on the surface of Mars by permitting identification of Earth-derived contamination in samples. If Mars contains indigenous life, and that life is based on nucleic acids or other closely related molecules, sequencing would serve as a critical tool for the characterization of those molecules. Therefore, spaceflight-compatible nucleic acid sequencing would be an important capability for both crew health and astrobiology exploration. Advances in sequencing technology on Earth have been driven largely by needs for higher throughput and read accuracy. Although some reduction in size has been achieved, nearly all commercially available sequencers are not compatible with spaceflight due to size, power, and operational requirements. Exceptions are nanopore-based sequencers that measure changes in current caused by DNA passing through pores; these devices are inherently much smaller and require significantly less power than sequencers using other detection methods. Consequently, nanopore-based sequencers could be made flight-ready with only minimal modifications.

John, K. K.↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Intelligent Data Understanding Element of NASA's Intelligent Systems Program

Within the NASA Intelligent Systems Program, the Intelligent Data Understanding (IDU) element develops techniques for transforming data into scientific understanding. Automating such tools is critical for space science, space-based earth science, and planetary exploration with onboard scientific data analysis. Intelligent data understanding (IDU) is about extracting meaning from large, diverse science and engineering databases, via autonomous techniques that transform very large datasets into understanding. The earth science community in particular needs new tools for analyzing multi-formatted and geographically distributed datasets and for identifying cause-effect relationships in the complex data. Research within the IDU program element seeks to automate data analysis tasks so that humans can focus on creative hypothesis generation and knowledge synthesis. It may also enable NASA space missions in which autonomous agents must generate knowledge and take actions, and missions where limited bandwidth permits transmission of only the most interesting scientific observations, summaries, and conclusions. Twenty-seven research projects are-currently funded.

Coughlan, Joseph C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Providing Affordable Access to the Lunar and Martian Gravity Environments for Conducting Scientific Research and Enabling Technology Development

NASA’s Artemis campaign aims to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars. Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth. Conducting space research and validating gravity-dependent technologies in low-Earth orbit or on the surface of the Moon or Mars is expensive and typically requires long project life cycles. To achieve NASA’s Moon to Mars objectives, it will be necessary to have affordable, ground-based test platforms for carrying out this research and technology development in the relevant gravity environment. A proposed upgrade to NASA Glenn Research Center’s Zero Gravity Research Facility is presented that will provide more than 10 seconds of any prescribed gravity level between microgravity and Earth gravity, allowing users to rapidly conduct dozens of tests per day in a microgravity, Lunar, and Martian gravity environment. The design concept is described along with expected performance characteristics, and technologies and research areas that will benefit. The proposed ground-based variable gravity test capability will enable scientific breakthroughs and Moon to Mars technology and subsystem development while also providing a tool for educating and inspiring future scientists and engineers.

Variable Gravity↗
NASA NTRS2020

Innovative Thermal Management & Control to Surmount Challenges of Exploring Ocean Worlds on Europa and Enceladus

Probes to penetrate the thick ice shells of our solar system’s Ocean Worlds have been studied for nearly 20 years, since scientific evidence strongly suggested a subsurface ocean on the Jupiter moon called Europa. There is keen scientific interest in exploring four significant themes on such proposed missions: 1) Geodynamics, 2) Geochemistry, 3) Habitability, and 4) Life Detection. The ice shells of Ocean Worlds are predicted to be up to 40 km thick; they exhibit extreme thermal environments, with ice temperatures from 100 K to 270 K, and extreme pressure environments from vacuum to 53 MPa. Jet Propulsion Laboratory has conducted a broad-look investigation of proposed mission concepts to Europa to identify the significant technology and operational challenges of Europa ice-penetration. The thermal-mechanical system (TMS) of an ice penetration probe (IPP) designed to access the ocean of an icy moon using radioisotope thermoelectric generators for heat and power faces technological hurdles exacerbated by severe thermal and volume constraints. This study identified thermal management and control (TMC) challenges that are strongly linked to: ice penetration start-up, mobility and navigation in the ice, communications while in the ice sheet, and detecting and avoiding in-ice hazards. The major objectives of the TMC system are: 1) Absorb internal thermal energy from the IPP radioisotope power source, 2) Maintain liquid water conditions around the IPP at all times, 3) Manage and control thermal flows from probe nose to tail, and 4) Provide pressure containment for all internal probe components. This work discusses the baseline TMC system architecture and design developed to accomplish these objectives, and survive and transit the extreme ice thicknesses in pursuit of Icy/Ocean Worlds science goals. The proposed TMC system consisting of an internal pumped two-phase fluid loop “thermal bus” for thermal energy capture, variable conductance heat pipe system for passively adaptive thermal energy transport around the probe, and water jetting system for ice cutting is described and discussed. Critical testing performed to date is described.

Lee, Kuan-Lin↗
NASA NTRS2000

An Integrated Exploration Strategy

Many new scientific findings in planetary science (potential life in a Mars meteorite, possible frozen water at the Lunar Poles, permanently lit region at the lunar south pole, recent water flow on Mars) provide a compelling case for humans to once again leave low earth orbit and explore. Robotic missions are capable of conducting science, but only humans can explore and discover. The challenge is to build an affordable exploration program. This can be done by aggressively evolving our current systems, developing high payoff technologies, leveraging off commercial and other agencies' programs, and developing a set of core capabilities to be used to explore a variety of destinations. NASA has a Strategic Roadmap based on detailed mission studies to develop these core technologies and capabilities to allow human space exploration. Advances in human support, launch vehicle. improvements, development of in-space transportation systems, efficient power generation and distribution, and In-Situ Resource Utilization are all required to meet the exploration challenge. The groundwork today will provide the technology and tools needed to conduct safe, affordable, and efficient exploration to the moon, asteroids, deep space observatories and Mars.

Conley, Mike↗
NASA NTRS2001

Communication System Architecture for Planetary Exploration

Future human missions to Mars will require effective communications supporting exploration activities and scientific field data collection. Constraints on cost, size, weight and power consumption for all communications equipment make optimization of these systems very important. These information and communication systems connect people and systems together into coherent teams performing the difficult and hazardous tasks inherent in planetary exploration. The communication network supporting vehicle telemetry data, mission operations, and scientific collaboration must have excellent reliability, and flexibility.

Braham, Stephen P.↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Mission

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a Lunar science orbiter mission currently under development to address the goals of the National Research Council decadal surveys and the recent "Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon" (SCEM) [1] report to study the pristine state of the lunar atmosphere and dust environment prior to significant human activities. LADEE will determine the composition of the lunar atmosphere and investigate the processes that control its distribution and variability, including sources, sinks, and surface interactions. LADEE will also determine whether dust is present in the lunar exosphere, and reveal the processes that contribute to its sources and variability. These investigations are relevant to our understanding of surface boundary exospheres and dust processes throughout the solar system, address questions regarding the origin and evolution of lunar volatiles, and have potential implications for future exploration activities. LADEE employs a high heritage science instrument payload including a neutral mass spectrometer, ultraviolet spectrometer, and dust sensor. In addition to the science payloads, LADEE will fly a laser communications system technology demonstration that could provide a building block for future space communications architectures. LADEE is an important component in NASA's portfolio of near-term lunar missions, addressing objectives that are currently not covered by other U.S. or international efforts, and whose observations must be conducted before large-scale human or robotic activities irrevocably perturb the tenuous and fragile lunar atmosphere. LADEE will also demonstrate the effectiveness of a low-cost, rapid-development program utilizing a modular bus design launched on the new Minotaur V launch vehicle. Once proven, this capability could enable future lunar missions in a highly cost constrained environment. This paper describes the LADEE objectives, mission design, and technical approach.

Spremo, Stevan↗
NASA NTRS2003

Holarchical Systems and Emotional Holons : Biologically-Inspired System Designs for Control of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles

The BEES (Bio-inspired Engineering for Exploration Systems) for Mars project at NASA Ames Research Center has the goal of developing bio-inspired flight control strategies to enable aerial explorers for Mars scientific investigations. This paper presents a summary of our ongoing research into biologically inspired system designs for control of unmanned autonomous aerial vehicle communities for Mars exploration. First, we present cooperative design considerations for robotic explorers based on the holarchical nature of biological systems and communities. Second, an outline of an architecture for cognitive decision making and control of individual robotic explorers is presented, modeled after the emotional nervous system of cognitive biological systems. Keywords: Holarchy, Biologically Inspired, Emotional UAV Flight Control

Ippolito, Corey↗
NASA NTRS2022

The Curiosity Rover’s Exploration of Glen Torridon, Gale Crater, Mars: An Overview of the Campaign and Scientific Results

The Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, explored the clay mineral-bearing Glen Torridon region for 1 Martian year between January 2019 and January 2021, including a short campaign onto the Greenheugh pediment. The Glen Torridon campaign sought to characterize the geology of the area, seek evidence of habitable environments, and document the onset of a potentially global climatic transition during the Hesperian era. Curiosity roved 5 km in total throughout Glen Torridon, from the Vera Rubin ridge to the northern margin of the Greenheugh pediment. Curiosity acquired samples from 11 drill holes during this campaign and conducted the first Martian thermochemolytic-based organics detection experiment with the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite. The lowest elevations within Glen Torridon represent a continuation of lacustrine Murray formation deposits, but overlying widespread cross bedded sandstones indicate an interval of more energetic fluvial environments and prompted the definition of a new stratigraphic formation in the Mount Sharp group called the Carolyn Shoemaker formation. Glen Torridon hosts abundant phyllosilicates yet remains compositionally and mineralogically comparable to the rest of the Mount Sharp group. Glen Torridon samples have a great diversity and abundance of sulfur-bearing organic molecules, which are consistent with the presence of ancient refractory organic matter. The Glen Torridon region experienced heterogeneous diagenesis, with the most striking alteration occurring just below the Siccar Point unconformity at the Greenheugh pediment. Results from the pediment campaign show that the capping sandstone formed within the Stimson Hesperian aeolian sand sea that experienced seasonal variations in wind direction.

Kristen A Bennett↗
NASA NTRS1996

Review of NASA's Planned Mars Program

The exploration of Mars has long been a prime scientific objective of the U.S. planetary exploration program. Yet no U.S. spacecraft has successfully made measurements at Mars since the Viking missions of the late 1970s. Mars Observer, which was designed to conduct global observations from orbit, failed just before orbit insertion in 1993. The Russian spacecraft Phobos 2 did succeed in making some observations of the planet in 1989, but it was designed primarily to observe Phobos, the innermost satellite of Mars; the spacecraft failed 2 months after insertion into Mars orbit during the complex maneuvers required to rendezvous with the martian satellite. In fall 1996 NASA plans to launch Mars Pathfinder for a landing on the martian surface in mid-1997. This spacecraft is one of the first two missions in NASA's Discovery program that inaugurates a new style of planetary exploration in which missions are low-cost (less than $150 million) and have very focused science objectives. As can be seen in the comparative data presented in Box 1, this mission is considerably smaller in terms of cost, mass, and scope than NASA's previous Mars missions. NASA's FY 1995 budget initiated a continuing Mars exploration program, called Mars Surveyor, that involves multiple launches of spacecraft as small as or smaller than Mars Pathfinder to Mars over the next several launch opportunities, which recur roughly every 26 months. The first mission in the program, Mars Global Surveyor, set for launch late in 1996, is intended to accomplish many of the objectives of the failed Mars Observer. Like the Discovery program, Mars Surveyor is a continuing series of low-cost missions, each of which has highly focused science objectives. See Box 1 for comparative details of those Surveyor missions currently defined. Around the same time that the Mars Surveyor series was chosen as the centerpiece of NASA's solar system exploration program, the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) designated Mars as one of four scientific targets for emphasis in future studies. It was against this background that the Space Studies Board charged COMPLEX to review whether the Mars Pathfinder and Surveyor programs, as presently conceived, satisfy the highest priorities for understanding Mars as provided in its report, An Integrated Strategy for the Planetary Sciences: 1995-2010. The present document is COMPLEX's assessment of the scientific potential of NASA's new approach to Mars exploration. This assessment considers how well the scientific objectives of the Mars Surveyor program match those of the Integrated Strategy; it also addresses some advantages and disadvantages of the smaller-faster-cheaper approach to the exploration of Mars. The capabilities of the various instruments are not discussed in detail since the Mars Observer instruments, all of which are scheduled for reflight, have already been assessed by COMPLEX2 and later instruments are, in general, not yet well defined.

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