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At least 19 records

THUNDER: A Titan orbiter mission concept for the New Frontiers program designed at the JPL Planetary Science Summer School

Saturn’s moon Titan is an enigmatic icy world whose surface is constantly modified by its active, Earthlike precipitation system. Here, we propose the THUNDER (Titan’s Hydrocarbons: Uncovering New Dimensions of Evolutionary pRocesses) mission concept to investigate how Titan’s surface reflects the nature of its interior and its active hydrocarbon cycle. This mission will change our understanding of Titan’s surface through three science objectives: characterizing the heat and material transport properties of Titan’s icy outer layer, tracing surface liquid storage through and across the crust, and assessing the total hydrocarbon budget through time. This New Frontiers-class mission, designed as part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Planetary Science Summer School, responds directly to the call for a Titan orbiter in the NASA Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. THUNDER’s focused geology and geophysics mission could achieve full surface mapping to complement both the Cassini-Huygens and Dragonfly missions using gravity science, radar with three operational modes, and a visible-to-infrared spectrometer. These instruments together could give us the first look at Titan as a fully connected and geologically active world , revolutionizing our understanding of icy bodies, fluvial and atmospheric processes, and habitability across geologic time. Here, we summarize goals of the science mission and engineering approaches, as well as challenges and future directions to study before THUNDER can become a viable mission concept.

mission concept↗

Life Cycle Cost Growth Study for the Discovery and New Frontiers Program Office

The D&NF Program Office LCC Management Study provides a detailed look at the drivers underlying cost overruns and schedule delays for five D&NF missions. While none of the findings are new, the study underlines the importance of continued emphasis on sound project management techniques: a clean project management structure with a clear definition of roles and responsibilities across the various partners in a project, an understanding of institutional standards and procedures and any differences among the partners, and the critical need for a comprehensive IMS that can be used easily and routinely to identify potential threats to the critical path. The study also highlights the continuing need for realistic estimates of the total LCC. Sufficient time and resources must be allocated early in a project to ensure that the appropriate trade studies and analyses are performed across all aspects of a mission: spacecraft, ground system, operations concept, and fault management, to ensure that proposed and confirmed costs truly reflect the resource requirements over the entire mission life cycle. These studies need to include a realistic review of the assumptions underlying the use of new technologies, the integration of heritage and new hardware and software into the total mission environment, and any development and test savings based on heritage technology and lessons learned. Finally, the LCC Management Study stresses the need to listen to, carefully consider, and take positive action regarding the issues raised during reviews by the expert review teams.

Barley, Bryan↗

NASA's Discovery Program: Moving Toward the Edge (of the Solar System)

NASA's Planetary Science , Division sponsors a competitive program of small spacecraft missions with the goal of performing focused science investigations that complement NASA's larger planetary science explorations at relatively low cost. The goal of the Discovery program is to launch many smaller missions with fast development times to increase our understanding of the solar system by exploring the planets, dwarf planets, their moons, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids. Discovery missions are solicited from the broad planetary science community approximately every 2 years. Active missions within the Discovery program include several with direct scientific or engineering connections to potential future missions to the edge of the solar system and beyond. In addition to those in the Discovery program are the missions of the New Frontiers program. The first New Frontiers mission. is the New Horizons mission to Pluto, which will explore this 38-AU distant dwarf planet and potentially some Kuiper Belt objects beyond. The Discovery program's Dawn mission, when launched in mid-2007, will use ion drive as its primary propulsion system. Ion propulsion is one of only two technologies that appear feasible for early interstellar precursor missions with practical flight times. The Kepler mission will explore the structure and diversity of extrasolar planetary systems, with an emphasis on the detection of Earth-size planets around other stars. Kepler will survey nearby solar systems searching for planets that may fall within the habitable zone,' a region surrounding a star within which liquid water may exist on a planet's surface - an essential ingredient for life as we know it. With its open and competitive approach to mission selections, the Discovery program affords scientists the opportunity to propose missions to virtually any solar system destination. With its emphasis on science and proven openness to the use of new technologies such as ion propulsion, missions flown as part of the program will test out technologies needed for future very deep-space exploration and potentially take us to these difficult and distant destinations.

Johnson, Les↗

Opening New Frontiers in Space: Choices for the Next New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity

NASA has initiated two missions in the New Frontiers Program and plans to issue an announcement of opportunity in 2008 to enable teams led by a principal investigator to compete for the third New Frontiers mission. NASA has asked the National Research Council to provide criteria and guiding principles for determining the list of candidate missions for this new competition. The New Frontiers Program was established at the recommendation of the 2003 National Research Council solar system exploration decadal survey, New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated Exploration Strategy.1 The decadal survey recommended five medium-size missions as options for the New Frontiers Program. Three of those options remain to be implemented. In addition, the decadal survey listed five other medium-size missions that it did not specifically recommend for implementation. The Committee on New Opportunities in Solar System Exploration has sought to follow the guidance of the decadal survey in recommending principles for the next New Frontiers competition.

Source record↗

OSIRIS-REx Asterod Sample Return Mission

OSIRIS-REx is NASA's third New Frontiers Program mission, following New Horizons that completed a flyby of Pluto in 2015 and the Juno mission to Jupiter that has just begun science operations. The OSIRIS-REx mission's primary objective is to collect pristine surface samples of a carbonaceous asteroid and return to Earth for analysis. Carbonaceous asteroids and comets are 'primitive' bodies that preserved remnants of the Solar System starting materials and through their study scientists can learn about the origin and the earliest evolution of the Solar System. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was successfully launched on September 8, 2016, beginning its seven year journey to asteroid 101955 Bennu. The robotic arm will collect 60-2000 grams of material from the surface of Bennu and will return to Earth in 2023 for worldwide distribution by the Astromaterials Curation Facility at NASA Johnson Space Center. The name OSIRIS-REx embodies the mission objectives (1) Origins: Return and analyze a sample of a carbonaceous asteroid, (2) Spectral Interpretation: Provide ground-truth for remote observation of asteroids, (3) Resource Identification: Determine the mineral and chemical makeup of a near-Earth asteroid (4) Security: Measure the non-gravitational that changes asteroidal orbits and (5) Regolith Explorer: Determine the properties of the material covering an asteroid surface. Asteroid Bennu may preserve remnants of stardust, interstellar materials and the first solids to form in the Solar System and the molecular precursors to the origin of life and the Earth's oceans. Bennu is a potentially hazardous asteroid, with an approximately 1 in 2700 chance of impacting the Earth late in the 22nd century. OSIRIS-REx collects from Bennu will help formulate the types of operations and identify mission activities that astronauts will perform during their expeditions. Such information is crucial in preparing for humanity's next steps beyond low Earthy orbit and on to deep space destinations.

Nakamura-Messinger, Keiki↗

Neutral Mass Spectrometry for Venus Atmosphere and Surface

The nature of the divergent evolution of the terrestrial planets Venus, Earth, and Mars is a fundamental problem in planetary science that is most relevant to understanding the characteristics of small planets we are likely to discover in extrasolar systems and the number of such systems that may support habitable environments. For this reason, the National Research Council's Decadal Survey gives Venus exploration high priority. That report was the basis of the NASA selection of Venus as one of four prime mission targets for the recently initiated New Frontiers Program. If the Decadal Survey priorities are to be realized, in situ Venus exploration must remain a high priority. Remote sensing orbital and in situ atmospheric measurements from entry probe or balloon platforms might be realized under the low cost Discovery missions while both atmospheric and landed surface measurements are envisioned with the intermediate class missions of the New Frontiers Program.

Mahaffy, Paul↗

Advanced Curation: Solving Current and Future Sample Return Problems

Advanced Curation is a wide-ranging and comprehensive research and development effort at NASA Johnson Space Center that identifies and remediates sample related issues. For current collections, Advanced Curation investigates new cleaning, verification, and analytical techniques to assess their suitability for improving curation processes. Specific needs are also assessed for future sample return missions. For each need, a written plan is drawn up to achieve the requirement. The plan draws while upon current Curation practices, input from Curators, the analytical expertise of the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) team, and suitable standards maintained by ISO, IEST, NIST and other institutions. Additionally, new technologies are adopted on the bases of need and availability. Implementation plans are tested using customized trial programs with statistically robust courses of measurement, and are iterated if necessary until an implementable protocol is established. Upcoming and potential NASA missions such as OSIRIS-REx, the Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM), sample return missions in the New Frontiers program, and Mars sample return (MSR) all feature new difficulties and specialized sample handling requirements. The Mars 2020 mission in particular poses a suite of challenges since the mission will cache martian samples for possible return to Earth. In anticipation of future MSR, the following problems are among those under investigation: What is the most efficient means to achieve the less than 1.0 ng/sq cm total organic carbon (TOC) cleanliness required for all sample handling hardware? How do we maintain and verify cleanliness at this level? The Mars 2020 Organic Contamination Panel (OCP) predicts that organic carbon, if present, will be present at the "one to tens" of ppb level in martian near-surface samples. The same samples will likely contain wt% perchlorate salts, or approximately 1,000,000x as much perchlorate oxidizer as organic carbon. The chemical kinetics of this reaction are poorly understood at present under the conditions of cached or curated martian samples. Among other parameters, what is the maximum temperature allowed during storage in order to preserve native martian organic compounds for analysis? What is the best means to collect headspace gases from cached martian (and other) samples? This gas will contain not only martian atmosphere but also off-gassed volatiles from the cached solids.

Fries, M.↗

A Look Inside the Juno Mission to Jupiter

Juno, the second mission within the New Frontiers Program, is a Jupiter polar orbiter mission designed to return high-priority science data that spans across multiple divisions within NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Juno's science objectives, coupled with the natural constraints of a cost-capped, PI-led mission and the harsh environment of Jupiter, have led to a very unique mission and spacecraft design.

Jupiter↗

Gyro Evaluation for the Mission to Jupiter

As an important component in NASA's New Frontiers Program, the Jupiter Polar Orbiter (Juno) mission is designed to investigate in-depth physical properties of Jupiter. It will include the giant planet's ice-rock core and atmospheric studies as well as exploration of its polar magnetosphere. It will also provide the opportunity to understand the origin of the Jovian magnetic field. Due to severe radiation environment of the Jovian system, this mission inherently presents a significant technical challenge to Attitude Control System (ACS) design since the ACS sensors must survive and function properly to reliably maneuver the spacecraft throughout the mission. Different gyro technologies and their critical performance characteristics are discussed, compared and evaluated to facilitate a choice of appropriate gyro-based inertial measurement unit to operate in a harsh Jovian environment to assure mission success.

physical properties↗

Space Science Research and Technology at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

This presentation will summarize the various projects and programs managed in the Space Science Programs and Projects Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Projects in the portfolio include NASA's Chandra X-Ray telescope, Hinode solar physics satellite, various advanced space propulsion technologies, including solar sails and tethers, as well as NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers Programs.

Johnson, Charles L.↗

Upcoming and Future Missions in the Area of Infrared Astronomy: Spacecraft and Ground-based Observations

The IRIS instrument on the Voyager spacecrafts made major discoveries with regard to the giant planets, their moons and rings and paved the way for future infrared observations for planetary missions within our solar system. The CIRS instrument of Cassini with much greater spectral-spatial resolution and sensitivity than that provided by IRIS is now rapidly approaching the Saturnian system with orbit insertion on July 1, 2004, for which CIRS is expected to provide an order of magnitude advance beyond that provided by IRIS. The Mars program is also presently dominated by infrared observations in the near to mid-infrared spectral bands for missions such as Mars Global Surveyor and its TES instrument and Odyssey with its THEMIS instrument. In the case of Earth science we have such missions as TIMED, which makes infrared observations of the thermosphere using the SABER instrument. With the newly formed New Frontiers Program we have the opportunity for $650M missions such as Kuiper Belt-Pluto Explorer and Jupiter Polar Orbiter with Probes. Under the Flagship line, once per decade, we have the opportunity for $1B missions for which Europa is presently being considered; for this mission infrared measurements could look for hot spots within the maze of cracks and faults on Europa s surface. On Kuiper Belt- Pluto there is an imaging near-IR spectrometer called LEISA. Another mission on the horizon is Titan Orbiter Aerorover Mission (TOAM) for which there is planned a state-of-art version of CIRS called TIRS on the orbiter that will map out the atmospheric composition with unprecedented wavelength coverage and spectral-spatial resolution. This instrument will also provide temperature maps of the surface of Titan to look for hot spots where life may form. On the same mission there will be a descent imager on the Aerorover (i.e., balloon) similar to that provided by LEISA on the Pluto mission to provide compositional-topographical maps of Titan s surface. Other future mission will also be discussed. Improved thermal detectors could have important applications in solar physics, specifically in the detection of far-IR synchrotron emission from energetic electrons in solar flares. For infrared astronomy we have missions like SIRTF and JWST, which will cover the spectral range from near-IR to far-IR in the search and probing of both new and old planetary systems in our galaxy and the measurement of the most distant galaxies of our universe. SIRTF is scheduled to be launched in August 2003, while JWST will be launched next decade. Another mission is TPF, which will use interferometer techniques at infrared wavelengths to search for planetary systems beyond 2010. With regard to ground based telescopes we have, for example, the twin 10 meter Keck telescopes and the IRTF telescope at Mauna Kea. The Keck telescopes are presently using interferometer techniques. Over the next several decades there are plans for 50 meter to 200 meter telescopes providing near-IR to far-IR measurements with the eventual plan to combine all telescopes using interferometer techniques to provide unprecedented spectral-spatial resolution and sensitivity.

Sittler, E. C., Jr.↗

The CAESAR New Frontiers Comet Sample Return Mission

The Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR) mission is one of two finalists selected by NASA for Phase A study in the New Frontiers program. CAESAR will acquire a minimum of 80 grams of material from the surface of comet 67P/Churuyumov-Gerasimenko and return it to Earth for laboratory analysis. CAESAR preserves much of the science of a cryogenic sample return by retaining volatiles in a dedicated reservoir securely separated from the solid sample. Comet 67P was selected based on its favorable orbital geometry and the risk reduction and scientific context provided by the ESA (European Space Agency)'s Rosetta mission. CAESAR's objectives are to understand the origins of the Solar System starting materials and how these components came together to form planets and give rise to life. We also seek to resolve the conflicting views of comet origins arising from the Stardust and Rosetta missions. While the greater than 1 micron solids returned by Stardust originated in the hot, inner solar nebula, measurements by Rosetta suggest 67P volatiles formed at cryogenic temperatures and remained unchanged for billions of years. This dichotomy provides the rationale for returning both solid and gaseous samples.

CAESAR New Frontiers↗

Aerothermodynamics for Dragonfly's Titan Entry

Dragonfly is a proposed spacecraft and mission that would send a mobile robotic rotorcraft lander to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, in order to study prebiotic chemistry and extraterrestrial habitability at various locations. Titan is unique in having an abundant, complex, and diverse carbon-rich chemistry on the surface of a water-ice-dominated world with an interior water ocean, making it a high priority target for astrobiology and origin of life studies. The mission was initially proposed in April 2017 to NASA's New Frontiers program by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. In December 2017, it was selected as one of two finalists (out of twelve proposals) to further refine the mission's concept. NASA Ames Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center are partnering as the leads for the Dragonfly's entry system to provide the completed EDL Assembly. The aerothermal analysis for Dragonfly utilizes four simulation tools from NASA Ames Research Center. Traj for calculating the trajectory, DPLR 4.04.0 for calculating the flowfield around the vehicle and convective heating, NEQAIR V15.0 for calculating the radiative heating, and FIAT for calculating the material response and thermal protection system (TPS) sizing for the heatshield. The entry conditions are relatively benign and can readily be accommodated with a tiled PICA heatshield similar to MSL and a number of flight proven materials for the backshell. This work will demonstrate that the aerothermal entry environments can be readily solved using heritage materials and techniques.

New Frontiers↗

Using Quality Attributes to Bridge Systems Engineering Gaps : A Juno Ground Data Systems Case Study

The Juno Mission to Jupiter is the second mission selected by the NASA New Frontiers Program. Juno launched August 2011 and will reach Jupiter July 2016. Juno's payload system is composed of nine instruments plus a gravity science experiment. One of the primary functions of the Juno Ground Data System (GDS) is the assembly and distribution of the CFDP (CCSDS File Delivery Protocol) product telemetry, also referred to as raw science data, for eight out of the nine instruments. The GDS accomplishes this with the Instrument Data Pipeline (IDP). During payload integration, the first attempt to exercise the IDP in a flight like manner revealed that although the functional requirements were well understood, the system was unable to meet latency requirements with the as-is heritage design. A systems engineering gap emerged between Juno instrument data delivery requirements and the assumptions behind the heritage flight-ground interactions. This paper describes the use of quality attributes to measure and overcome this gap by introducing a new systems engineering activity, and a new monitoring service architecture that successfully delivered the performance metrics needed to validate Juno IDP.

Ground Data Systems (GDS)↗

Aerothermal Analysis of the Dragonfly Titan Entry

The Dragonfly mission will send a rotorcraft lander to the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan as part of the New-Frontiers program. This will be the first spacecraft to land on Titan since the Huygens probe’s descent in January of 2005 and only the second spacecraft to enter Titan’s atmosphere. The Dragonfly entry capsule is significantly larger than the Huygens probe and will experience higher aerothermal environments. This poster will provide an overview of the aerothermodynamic models used in the Dragonfly aeroshell design process. Titan provides a unique entry environment that has several fundamental differences from the environments at the more common entry destinations of Earth and Mars. The lack of atmospheric oxygen significantly reduces heatshield recession (expected to be negligible), which simplifies material response analysis but also reduces the efficiency of the thermal protection system. The atmos-phere is composed of mostly nitrogen and trace amounts of methane. During hypersonic entry this methane dissociates and leads to the formation of the molecule CN, which is known to radiate strongly in the shock layer. Current Dragonfly heating predictions estimate that radiation contributes about 50% of the total heat flux along the forebody and up to 90% on the aftbody, making radiation a key element of aerothermal analysis. To properly address the importance of radiation, a unique radiative-heating correlation was developed that incorporates normal-shock equilibrium chemistry predictions based on work from the Mars 2020 program. These new heating correlations agree well with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) predictions and enable large-scale trajectory analyses by providing rapid heating predictions along candidate trajectories. Dragonfly aerothermal environments are generated with the Data Parallel Line Relaxation (DPLR) finite-volume Navier-Stokes solver alongside the Nonequilibrium Radiative Transport and Spectra (NEQAIR) radiation transport code. DPLR produces shock-aligned flowfields that incorporate the effects of both chemical and thermal nonequilibrium while NEQAIR solves the radiation transport equations along lines-of-sight through the flowfield solutions to predict the radiative heating on the aeroshell. Titan’s atmosphere produces complex thermal and chemical nonequilibria and so classical radiation approximations that extrapolate from a single line-of-sight, such as the Tangent-Slab method, were found to overpredict peak radiative heat fluxes by 10-20%. Therefore, all radiative heating is directly calculated using 3-D transport for both the forebody and aftbody to reduce unnecessary conservatism. A 21-species finite-rate chemistry model, including electrons and ionized species, is used in the CFD to ensure accurate vehicle heating predictions (the level of ionization is particularly for accurate radiative flux predictions). This poster will cover: 1) The models and assumptions used to simulate entry into Titan’s atmosphere, 2) Dragonfly aerothermal engineering correlations alongside statistical heating values, and 3) Driving aerothermal considerations for a Titan entry such as CN formation and radiation-flowfield coupling.

EDL↗

Neptune Polar Orbiter with Probes

The giant planets of the outer solar system divide into two distinct classes: the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, which consist mainly of hydrogen and helium; and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, which are believed to contain significant amounts of the heavier elements oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon and sulfur. Detailed comparisons of the internal structures and compositions of the gas giants with those of the ice giants will yield valuable insights into the processes that formed the solar system and, perhaps, other planetary systems. By 2012, Galileo, Cassini and possibly a Jupiter Orbiter mission with microwave radiometers, Juno, in the New Frontiers program, will have yielded significant information on the chemical and physical properties of Jupiter and Saturn. A Neptune Orbiter with Probes (NOP) mission would deliver the corresponding key data for an ice giant planet. Such a mission would ideally study the deep Neptune atmosphere to pressures approaching and possibly exceeding 1000 bars, as well as the rings, Triton, Nereid, and Neptune s other icy satellites. A potential source of power would be nuclear electric propulsion (NEP). Such an ambitious mission requires that a number of technical issues be investigated, however, including: (1) atmospheric entry probe thermal protection system (TPS) design, (2) probe structural design including seals, windows, penetrations and pressure vessel, (3) digital, RF subsystem, and overall communication link design for long term operation in the very extreme environment of Neptune's deep atmosphere, (4) trajectory design allowing probe release on a trajectory to impact Neptune while allowing the spacecraft to achieve a polar orbit of Neptune, (5) and finally the suite of science instruments enabled by the probe technology to explore the depths of the Neptune atmosphere. Another driving factor in the design of the Orbiter and Probes is the necessity to maintain a fully operational flight system during the lengthy transit time from launch through Neptune encounter, and throughout the mission. Following our response to the recent NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for Space Science Vision Missions for mission studies by NASA for implementation in the 2013 or later time frame, our team has been selected to explore the feasibility of such a Neptune mission.

Bienstock, Bernard↗

Improving Life-Cycle Cost Management of Spacecraft Missions

This presentation will explore the results of a recent NASA Life-Cycle Cost study and how project managers can use the findings and recommendations to improve planning and coordination early in the formulation cycle and avoid common pitfalls resulting in cost overruns. The typical NASA space science mission will exceed both the initial estimated and the confirmed life-cycle costs by the end of the mission. In a fixed-budget environment, these overruns translate to delays in starting or launching future missions, or in the worst case can lead to cancelled missions. Some of these overruns are due to issues outside the control of the project; others are due to the unpredictable problems (unknown unknowns) that can affect any development project. However, a recent study of life-cycle cost growth by the Discovery and New Frontiers Program Office identified a number of areas that are within the scope of project management to address. The study also found that the majority of the underlying causes for cost overruns are embedded in the project approach during the formulation and early design phases, but the actual impacts typically are not experienced until late in the project life cycle. Thus, project management focus in key areas such as integrated schedule development, management structure and contractor communications processes, heritage and technology assumptions, and operations planning, can be used to validate initial cost assumptions and set in place management processes to avoid the common pitfalls resulting in cost overruns.

Clardy, Dennon↗

The OVIRS Visible/IR Spectrometer on the OSIRIS-Rex Mission

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer) Mission is a planetary science mission to study, and return a sample from, the carbonaceous asteroid 1999 RQ-36. The third mission selected under NASA's New Frontiers Program, it is scheduled to be launched in 2016. It is led by PI Dante Lauretta at the University of Arizona and managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The spacecraft and the asteroid sampling mechanism, TAGSAM (Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) will be provided by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Instrumentation for studying the asteroid include: OCAMS (the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite), OLA (the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter, a scanning LIDAR), OTES (The OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer, a 4-50 micron point spectrometer) and OVIRS (the OSIRIS-REx Visible and IR Spectrometer, a 0.4 to 4.3 micron point spectrometer). The payload also includes REXIS (the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer) a student provided experiment. This paper presents a description of the OVIRS instrument.

Reuter, D. C.↗