This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something. It's YOUR space agency. Get involved. Take it back. Make it work - for YOU.
Policy

NAC Set to Redirect Asteroid Redirect Mission

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
July 30, 2015
Filed under , ,
NAC Set to Redirect Asteroid Redirect Mission

NASA Advisory Council Meeting
“29-31 July 2015. Location: Jet Propulsion Laboratory”
Agenda
Keith’s note: In April the NAC came within a a vote of adopting a recommendation to NASA that the current Asteroid Redirect Mission be changed – possibly to go to Mars instead. That issue was delayed until the next NAC meeting in Pasadena i.e. this NAC meeting.
NASA Advisory Council Wants to Cancel Asteroid Redirect Mission and Send it to Phobos Instead, earlier post
NASA Membership Call for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) Formulation Assessment and Support Team (FAST), earlier post
NASA’s Boulder Retrieval Mission, earlier post

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

8 responses to “NAC Set to Redirect Asteroid Redirect Mission”

  1. numbers_guy101 says:
    0
    0

    I’m not sure of the merits one way or another, but challenging NASA on this is a sure fire sign the committee is feeling awful independent. This is a good thing.

  2. Steven Rappolee says:
    0
    0

    How it could be done

    http://yellowdragonblog.com

    It should be noted I over heard at SBAG “meeting” someone say there might be mars impact ejecta on Phobos or Deimos, This would be an indirect Mars sample return

    • Gerald Cecil says:
      0
      0

      We already have Mars ejecta: some shergottites. You can touch one in the Natural History museum in DC. And last week I saw two on display at PARI, a former NASA/NSA tracking center in the NC mountains.

      Sample return from the Martian surface provides areological context and presumably less shock modification.

    • wwheaton says:
      0
      0

      Phobos is probably MADE of material splashed into orbit by impacts, with some fraction of asteroidal material. It would have the advantage of a broad sampling of a variety of martian material, with the disadvantage of not quite knowing its exact provenance. But it also offers a potential resource for extraterrestrial material, possibly buried ice. which could be very useful for human missions aimed at the planet, far more accessible than resources from the surface. It seems very promising as a base camp for expeditions to the surface, reducing risk and cost. But of course we do not really know for sure, yet.

      So I think what we need is an ambitious robotic mission to extensively explore Deimos and Phobos, solar-electric powered like the Dawn mission, but equipped to land at several sites on each moon (Phobos escape velocity ~41 m/s), analyzing rocks, collecting samples, etc. Then return a capsule to Earth for more detailed lab analysis.

      Meanwhile, do a more careful exploration of the polar ice on the Moon, and see if we can really mine it economically, considering the infrastructure costs needed there to get it up to lunar orbit, where it would be useful. It might even be possible to do this exploitation entirely robotically, which would be far cheaper than a crewed base for the time being.

      With the Mars Moons exploration and the lunar polar ice evaluation missions under our belt, we would be in a far better position to decide which route to take, Moon or Phobos.

      • Daniel Woodard says:
        0
        0

        I think both; the Moon for our next permanent base (alone with continued operation in LEO) and the Martian moons for a robotic sample return mission. Nuclear power would be a major asset to both.

        • wwheaton says:
          0
          0

          I’m worried that a settlement on the Moon may turn out to be an expensive dead end, unless the Moon has significant economic value to the program of human space settlement. The Moon does have a serious gravitational potential well to overcome. So I hope we will evaluate that carefully before sinking billion and billions into it, especially if ice can be mined robotically.

          With ion drives, getting to Phobos is cheaper except for transit time, and it is arguably “The Gateway to Mars!”, as the Phobos Chamber of Commerce puts it. Also, it does weigh about 10 trillion tons, so the potential for useful materials seems high, without having to lift them off the Moon. And it is a good cosmic ray shield, etc, etc.

  3. Daniel Woodard says:
    0
    0

    A Phobos-Diemos mission has been discussed in one form or another for many years. However it would most reasonably be robotic and return a variety of smaller samples directly to Earth rather than a boulder to lunar orbit.

  4. savuporo says:
    0
    0

    My prediction : JWST, Europa Clipper and hmm what else .. you know what, New Horizons should turn around as well and go to Mars instead. Because Mars.