Autonomous Navigation for Deep Space Missions
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Chapter 6 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Jim Taylor, Dennis K. Lee, and Shervin Shambayati 6.1 Mission Overview The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) [1, 2] has a suite of instruments making observations at Mars, and it provides data-relay services for Mars landers and rovers. MRO was launched on August 12, 2005. The orbiter successfully went into orbit around Mars on March 10, 2006 and began reducing its orbit altitude and circularizing the orbit in preparation for the science mission. The orbit changing was accomplished through a process called aerobraking, in preparation for the “science mission” starting in November 2006, followed by the “relay mission” starting in November 2008. MRO participated in the Mars Science Laboratory touchdown and surface mission that began in August 2012 (Chapter 7). MRO communications has operated in three different frequency bands: 1) Most telecom in both directions has been with the Deep Space Network (DSN) at X-band (~8 GHz), and this band will continue to provide operational commanding, telemetry transmission, and radiometric tracking. 2) During cruise, the functional characteristics of a separate Ka-band (~32 GHz) downlink system were verified in preparation for an operational demonstration during orbit operations. After a Ka-band hardware anomaly in cruise, the project has elected not to initiate the originally planned operational demonstration (with yet-to-be used redundant Ka-band hardware). 201 202 Chapter 6 3) A new-generation ultra-high frequency (UHF) (~400 MHz) system was verified with the Mars Exploration Rovers in preparation for the successful relay communications with the Phoenix lander in 2008 and the later Mars Science Laboratory relay operations. -
Rosetta Craft Makes Historic Comet Rendezvous European Space Agency's Comet-Chasing Mission Arrives After 10-Year Journey
NATURE | NEWS Rosetta craft makes historic comet rendezvous European Space Agency's comet-chasing mission arrives after 10-year journey. Elizabeth Gibney 06 August 2014 ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, as seen by Rosetta from a distance of 285 kilometres. No one can deny that it was an epic trip. The European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft has arrived at its quarry, after launching more than a decade ago and travelling 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System. That makes it the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, and takes the mission a step closer to its next, more ambitious goal of making the first ever soft landing on a comet. Speaking from mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist for the European Space Agency (ESA), called the space mission “the sexiest there’s ever been”. Rosetta is now within 100 kilometres of its target, comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (or 67P for short), which in July was discovered to be shaped like a rubber duck. After a six-minute thruster burn, at 11:29 a.m. local time on 6 August, ESA scientists confirmed that Rosetta had moved into the same orbit around the Sun as the comet. Rosetta is now moving at a walking pace relative to the motion of 67P — though both are hurtling through space at 15 kilometres per second. Unlike NASA’s Deep Impact and Stardust craft, and ESA’s Giotto mission, which flew by their target comets at high speed, Rosetta will now stay with the comet, taking a ring-side seat as 67P approaches the Sun, and eventually swings around it in August 2015. -
OSIRIS-Rex, Returning the Asteroid Sample
OSIRIS-REx, Returning the Asteroid Sample Thomas Ajluni Timothy Linn William Willcockson ASRC Federal Space & Defense Lockheed Martin Space Systems Lockheed Martin Space Systems 7000 Muirkirk Meadows Drive Company, P.O. Box 179 Company, P.O. Box 179 Suite 100, Beltsville, MD 20705 Denver, CO 80201 Denver, CO 80201 301.286.1831 303-977-0659 303-977-5094 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] David Everett Ronald Mink Joshua Wood NASA Goddard Space Flight NASA Goddard Space Flight Lockheed Martin Space Systems Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road Company, P.O. Box 179 Greenbelt, MD 20771 Greenbelt, MD 20771 Denver, CO 80201 301.286.1596 301.286.3524 303-977-3199 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract—This paper addresses the technical aspects of the sample return system for the upcoming Origins, Spectral x attitude control Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith x propulsion Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid sample return mission. The x power overall mission design and current implementation are presented as an overview to establish a context for the x thermal control technical description of the reentry and landing segment of the x telecommunications mission. x command and data handling x structural support to ensure successful rendezvous The prime objective of the OSIRIS-REx mission is to sample a with Bennu primitive, carbonaceous asteroid and to return that sample to Earth in pristine condition for detailed laboratory analysis. x characterization of Bennu’s properties Targeting the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, the mission launches x delivery of the sampler to the surface, and return of in September 2016 with an Earth reentry date of September the spacecraft to the vicinity of the Earth 24, 2023. -
Chondrule-Like Material in Wild 2: a New Insight from Impact Experiments of Chondrule Fragments on Stardust Analogue Al Foil
52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2021 (LPI Contrib. No. 2548) 1925.pdf CHONDRULE-LIKE MATERIAL IN WILD 2: A NEW INSIGHT FROM IMPACT EXPERIMENTS OF CHONDRULE FRAGMENTS ON STARDUST ANALOGUE AL FOIL. M. Van Ginneken1 and P. J. Wozniakiewicz1, 1Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, United Kingdom ([email protected]; [email protected]) Introduction: NASA’s Stardust mission was the shape of craters depends mainly on the physical first mission to bring back to Earth material from a properties of the impactor [19]. Solid grains or dense celestial body, i.e. the Jupiter Family Comet (JFC) consolidated aggregates similar to chondrule fragments 81P/Wild 2 (hereafter Wild 2) [1]. Cometary dust was will result in bowl-shaped craters, the depth of which captured via impact into a collector that was deployed depending on the density of the material, whereas loose during a fly-by through the coma of Wild 2 at a relative aggregates of submicron particles result in complex speed of 6 km s-1. The collector consisted of silica features. Simulation of Stardust impacts using silicate aerogel secured into a metal frame by aluminum 1100 grains have shown that about 50% of silicate dominated foil (hereafter Al foil). A major result of the mission was impactors are retained as residue, which can be analysed the discovery that, contrary to expectations, Wild 2 was and provide precious chemical information [20]. not predominantly composed of presolar grains and low Studies of residues in a small (ø < 10 µm) or large temperature outer solar nebula material, but rather high (ø > 10 µm) craters on Stardust foil have shown that temperature (>>1000 °C) material typical of primitive these can give information on the bulk chemistry of the meteorites [1 - 3]. -
Space Sector Brochure
SPACE SPACE REVOLUTIONIZING THE WAY TO SPACE SPACECRAFT TECHNOLOGIES PROPULSION Moog provides components and subsystems for cold gas, chemical, and electric Moog is a proven leader in components, subsystems, and systems propulsion and designs, develops, and manufactures complete chemical propulsion for spacecraft of all sizes, from smallsats to GEO spacecraft. systems, including tanks, to accelerate the spacecraft for orbit-insertion, station Moog has been successfully providing spacecraft controls, in- keeping, or attitude control. Moog makes thrusters from <1N to 500N to support the space propulsion, and major subsystems for science, military, propulsion requirements for small to large spacecraft. and commercial operations for more than 60 years. AVIONICS Moog is a proven provider of high performance and reliable space-rated avionics hardware and software for command and data handling, power distribution, payload processing, memory, GPS receivers, motor controllers, and onboard computing. POWER SYSTEMS Moog leverages its proven spacecraft avionics and high-power control systems to supply hardware for telemetry, as well as solar array and battery power management and switching. Applications include bus line power to valves, motors, torque rods, and other end effectors. Moog has developed products for Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) Systems, such as high power DC converters, switching, and power stabilization. MECHANISMS Moog has produced spacecraft motion control products for more than 50 years, dating back to the historic Apollo and Pioneer programs. Today, we offer rotary, linear, and specialized mechanisms for spacecraft motion control needs. Moog is a world-class manufacturer of solar array drives, propulsion positioning gimbals, electric propulsion gimbals, antenna positioner mechanisms, docking and release mechanisms, and specialty payload positioners. -
Stardust Sample Return
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Stardust Sample Return Press Kit January 2006 www.nasa.gov Contacts Merrilee Fellows Policy/Program Management (818) 393-0754 NASA Headquarters, Washington DC Agle Stardust Mission (818) 393-9011 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Vince Stricherz Science Investigation (206) 543-2580 University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. Contents General Release ............................................................................................................... 3 Media Services Information ……………………….................…………….................……. 5 Quick Facts …………………………………………..................………....…........…....….. 6 Mission Overview …………………………………….................……….....……............…… 7 Recovery Timeline ................................................................................................ 18 Spacecraft ………………………………………………..................…..……...........……… 20 Science Objectives …………………………………..................……………...…..........….. 28 Why Stardust?..................…………………………..................………….....………............... 31 Other Comet Missions .......................................................................................... 33 NASA's Discovery Program .................................................................................. 36 Program/Project Management …………………………........................…..…..………...... 40 1 2 GENERAL RELEASE: NASA PREPARES FOR RETURN OF INTERSTELLAR CARGO NASA’s Stardust mission is nearing Earth after a 2.88 billion mile round-trip journey -
The Power of Sample Return Missions - Stardust and Hayabusa
The Molecular Universe Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 280, 2011 c International Astronomical Union 2011 Jos´e Cernicharo & Rafael Bachiller, eds. doi:10.1017/S174392131102504X The Power of Sample Return Missions - Stardust and Hayabusa Scott A. Sandford1 1 Astrophysics Branch, NASA-Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA email: [email protected] Abstract. Sample return missions offer opportunities to learn things about other objects in our Solar System (and beyond) that cannot be determined by observations using in situ spacecraft. This is largely because the returned samples can be studied in terrestrial laboratories where the analyses are not limited by the constraints - power, mass, time, precision, etc. - imposed by normal spacecraft operations. In addition, the returned samples serve as a scientific resource that is available far into the future; the study of the samples can continue long after the original spacecraft mission is finished. This means the samples can be continually revisited as both our scientific understanding and analytical techniques improve with time. These advantages come with some additional difficulties, however. In particular, sample return missions must deal with the additional difficulties of proximity operations near the objects they are to sample, and they must be capable of successfully making a round trip between the Earth and the sampled object. Such missions therefore need to take special precautions against unique hazards and be designed to successfully complete relatively extended mission durations. Despite these difficulties, several recent missions have managed to successfully complete sam- ple returns from a number of Solar System objects. These include the Stardust mission (samples from Comet 81P/Wild 2), the Hayabusa mission (samples from asteroid 25143 Itokawa), and the Genesis mission (samples of solar wind). -
Space Propulsion.Pdf
Deep Space Propulsion K.F. Long Deep Space Propulsion A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight K.F. Long Bsc, Msc, CPhys Vice President (Europe), Icarus Interstellar Fellow British Interplanetary Society Berkshire, UK ISBN 978-1-4614-0606-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-0607-5 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-0607-5 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011937235 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) This book is dedicated to three people who have had the biggest influence on my life. My wife Gemma Long for your continued love and companionship; my mentor Jonathan Brooks for your guidance and wisdom; my hero Sir Arthur C. Clarke for your inspirational vision – for Rama, 2001, and the books you leave behind. Foreword We live in a time of troubles. -
Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres Symbiosis Between Terrestrial Observations and Robotic Exploration
Earth Moon Planet (2007) 101:65–91 DOI 10.1007/s11038-007-9151-9 Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres Symbiosis between Terrestrial Observations and Robotic Exploration C. T. Russell Æ F. Capaccioni Æ A. Coradini Æ M. C. De Sanctis Æ W. C. Feldman Æ R. Jaumann Æ H. U. Keller Æ T. B. McCord Æ L. A. McFadden Æ S. Mottola Æ C. M. Pieters Æ T. H. Prettyman Æ C. A. Raymond Æ M. V. Sykes Æ D. E. Smith Æ M. T. Zuber Received: 21 August 2007 / Accepted: 22 August 2007 / Published online: 14 September 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract The initial exploration of any planetary object requires a careful mission design guided by our knowledge of that object as gained by terrestrial observers. This process is very evident in the development of the Dawn mission to the minor planets 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta. This mission was designed to verify the basaltic nature of Vesta inferred both from its reflectance spectrum and from the composition of the howardite, eucrite and diogenite meteorites believed to have originated on Vesta. Hubble Space Telescope observations have determined Vesta’s size and shape, which, together with masses inferred from gravitational perturbations, have provided estimates of its density. These investigations have enabled the Dawn team to choose the appropriate instrumentation and to design its orbital operations at Vesta. Until recently Ceres has remained more of an enigma. Adaptive-optics and HST observations now have provided data from which we can begin C. T. Russell (&) IGPP & ESS, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA e-mail: [email protected] F. -
RESULTS from the DEEP SPACE 1 TECHNOLOGY VALIDATION MISSION Marc D
50th International Astronautical Congress, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 4-8 October, 1999, IAA-99-IAA.11.2.01 Acta Astronautica 47, p. 475 (2000). RESULTS FROM THE DEEP SPACE 1 TECHNOLOGY VALIDATION MISSION Marc D. Rayman, Philip Varghese, David H. Lehman, and Leslie L. Livesay Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Dr. Pasadena, CA 91109 USA Launched on October 24, 1998, Deep Space 1 (DS1) is the first mission of NASA's New Millennium program, chartered to validate in space high-risk, new technologies important for future space and Earth science programs. The advanced technology payload that was tested on DS1 comprises solar electric propulsion, solar concentrator arrays, autonomous on-board navigation and other autonomous systems, several telecommunications and microelectronics devices, and two low-mass integrated science instrument packages. The technologies were rigorously exercised so that subsequent flight projects would not have to incur the cost and risk of being the first users of these new capabilities. The performances of the technologies are described as are the general execution of the mission and plans for future operations, including a possible extended mission that would be devoted to science. INTRODUCTION missions by developing and validating some of the high-risk, high-benefit technologies they need. NASA’s plans for its space and Earth NMP conducts deep space and Earth orbiting science programs call for many scientifically missions focused on the validation of these compelling, exciting missions. To make such technologies. The spacecraft flown by NMP are programs affordable, it is anticipated that small not intended to be fully representative of the spacecraft, launched on low-cost launch vehicles spacecraft to be used in future missions, but the and with highly focused objectives, will be used advanced technologies they incorporate are. -
1 Orbit Transfers for Dawn's Vesta Operations: Navigation and Mission
Orbit Transfers for Dawn’s Vesta Operations: Navigation and Mission Design Experience Dongsuk Han Senior Engineering Staff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Mail Stop 264-820, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, Phone: (818) 354-0445, E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Dawn, a mission belonging to NASA’s Discovery Program, was launched on September 27, 2007 to explore main belt asteroids in order to yield insights into important questions about the formation and evolution of the solar system. From July of 2011 to August of 2012, the Dawn spacecraft successfully returned valuable science data, collected during the four planned mapping orbits at its first target asteroid, Vesta. Each mapping orbit was designed to enable a different set of scientific observations. Such a mission would have been impossible without the low thrust ion propulsion system (IPS). Maneuvering a spacecraft using only the IPS for the transfers between the mapping orbits posed many technical challenges to Dawn’s flight team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Each transfer needs a robust plan that accounts for uncertainties in maneuver execution, orbit determination, and physical characteristics of Vesta. This paper discusses the mission design and navigational experience during Dawn’s Vesta operations. Topics include requirements and constraints from Dawn’s science and spacecraft teams, orbit determination and maneuver design and building process for transfers, developing timelines for thrust sequence build cycles, and the process of scheduling very demanding coverage with ground antennae at NASA’s Deep Space Network. Keywords: Dawn, Vesta, Navigation, Ion Propulsion system, Low Thrust, Small Body 1. -
Astronomical Observability of the Cassini Entry Into Saturn
1 7/25/2017 Astronomical Observability of the Cassini Entry into Saturn Ralph D. Lorenz Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Laurel, MD 20723, USA [email protected] Abstract The Cassini spacecraft will enter Saturn's atmosphere on 15 th September 2017. This event may be visible from Earth as a 'meteor' flash, and entry dynamics simulations and results from observation of spacecraft entries at Earth are summarized to develop expectations for astronomical observability. 2 1. Cassini End of Mission Scenario Cassini was originally designed to perform a 4-year exploration of the Saturnian system, after arrival in 2004 and delivering the Huygens probe to Titan. Robust design and a rich scientific return have permitted and motivated two mission extensions, first to 2010 and later to 2017. At this point, systems and instruments, although generally performing very well, are well beyond their qualification lifetimes. Electrical power has been slowly declining (restricting the number of instruments that can operate simultaneously), but most importantly the propellants for manoeuvres and attitude control have been depleted. Planetary protection considerations require the radioisotope-powered spacecraft to be disposed of in a controlled manner that will preclude the contamination of Saturn moons that have potentially habitable environments, notably Titan and Enceladus. As with Galileo at Jupiter in 2003, the chosen plan is to direct the spacecraft to enter the primary planet's atmosphere. The endgame part of Cassini's orbital tour (the "Grand Finale") was designed (e.g. Yam et al., 2009) with a series of orbits with apoapsis near Titan's orbit, permitting continued observations towards the summer solstice, and periapsis initially outside the F-ring, with a gravity assist from a final close Titan encounter (T126, in April 2017) shifting the periapsis to within the D-ring, i.e.