Jet may Propulsion 2014 Laboratory volume 44

number 5 Space rock JPL takes on key role for asteroid redirect lasso pre-project By Mark Whalen

Under one option, a robotic vehicle would descend to the surface of a large asteroid to collect a boulder that it can redirect to a distant retrograde lunar orbit. Under another option, the robotic spacecraft would use an inflatable bag to capture a small asteroid.

NASA has designated JPL to be the pre-project lead Under the first option, the spacecraft would rendez- NASA’s Science Directorate will continue discovering of the robotic portion of its Asteroid Redirect Mission, a vous with an asteroid with a diameter of 10 meters or and studying potential candidate targets through the project designed to bring a small asteroid or part of an less, said Muirhead. “We will capture the body, which Near Earth Objects Observation Program, managed by asteroid into orbit around Earth’s moon as a target for may be a loosely held together rubble pile, in a bag. Don Yeomans at JPL. astronauts as a stepping-stone to Mars. After capture we will nudge it to change its trajectory, The pre-project team is also evaluating options to The initial segment of the Asteroid Redirect Robotic so that it will fly by the moon, where lunar gravity will demonstrate techniques for “planetary defense” to Mission is targeted for launch in June 2019. cause the asteroid and spacecraft to enter a very stable deflect asteroids that could threaten our planet. If approved, the robotic spacecraft would capture the retrograde orbit.” “We’re looking at how to demonstrate a couple of asteroid and fly with it as it returns to the Earth–moon The second option calls for extracting a boulder 2 to basic techniques that we could possibly use as part of system in mid-2020s. The crewed mission taking astro- 3 meters across from an asteroid about 100 meters in a strategy to deflect a potentially hazardous asteroid,” nauts to the asteroid for exploration and sampling could diameter, bringing it to the same lunar orbit. Either op- said Muirhead. launch as early as 2023. tion would allow astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft Meanwhile, JPL’s development team is working risk- The robotic mission will use an advanced new ion to visit and study the body and return samples to Earth reduction tasks including building and testing a new propulsion system, first used on Deep Space 1 and laboratories. one-fifth-scale testbed of the capture bag system de- Dawn—but with much more power. “This is a 50-kilo- The asteroid initiative is a unique example of team- signed to work in Earth gravity as it would in space. watt system; Dawn is 10,” said JPL Chief Engineer work between NASA centers, Muirhead noted. Glenn Muirhead, who served as project manager of JPL’s Brian Muirhead, who is leading the effort. “We’re going Research Center is focusing on the solar electric propul- and Deep Impact missions, is no to have a system that can make use of 10 tons of xenon sion module while Goddard Space Flight Center would stranger to NASA’s human spaceflight endeavors. He propellant; Dawn has about half a ton.” develop proximity operations sensors for the robotic was chief architect and program systems engineer for The JPL-led multi-center team is doing pre-formula- and crewed missions and provide robotic arms. JPL is the agency’s Constellation Program, which created the tion work in preparation for a mission concept review also working closely with Johnson Space Center, which architecture for a new human exploration spaceflight next February 2015, said Muirhead. The team is cur- leads NASA’s human exploration program, in defining system to the moon and beyond. rently defining and developing two different mission the interfaces for the crewed mission to develop a crew options. safe vehicle. 2 Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission moves forward

NASA and the French space agency craft design and construction through niverse

U Centre National d’Études Spatiales have launch, science operations and eventual agreed to jointly build, launch and oper- decommissioning. NASA will provide ate a spacecraft to conduct the first-ever the payload module, the Ka-band Radar global survey of Earth’s surface water Interferometer instrument, the micro- and to map ocean surface height with wave radiometer with its antenna, a unprecedented detail. laser retroreflector array, a GPS receiver NASA Administrator Charles Bolden payload, ground support and launch and French space agency President services. Jean-Yves Le Gall signed an agreement The French space agency will pro- May 2 to move from feasibility studies vide the spacecraft bus, the Ka-band to implementation of the Surface Water Radar Interferometer instrument’s ra- and Ocean Topography mission. JPL will dio frequency unit, the dual frequency manage the U.S. portion of the project. Ku/C-band nadir altimeter, the Doppler The two agencies plan to complete Orbitography and Radiopositioning Inte- preliminary design activities in 2016, grated by Satellite (DORIS) receiver pack- with launch planned in 2020. age, satellite command and control, and SWOT is one of the NASA missions data processing infrastructure. recommended in the National Research The mission will use wide-swath Council’s 2007 decadal survey of Earth altimetry technology to produce high- NASA / Bill Ingalls science priorities. The satellite will resolution elevation measurements of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, left, and French space agency President Jean-Yves Le Gall sign an agreement to proceed to imple- survey 90 percent of the globe, study- the ocean surface and the surface of mentation of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, slated to launch in 2020. JPL will manage the U.S. portion of the project. ing Earth’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs and lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. A more ocean to aid in freshwater management complete inventory of Earth’s lakes and 15 percent of lakes around the world are features that are key components of how around the world and improve ocean cir- the changing amount of water they hold currently measured from space. heat and carbon are exchanged between culation models and weather and climate will yield improved assessments of how The mission will be able to measure the ocean and atmosphere. predictions. climate-induced changes can impact the ocean’s surface with 10 times the For more information on the mission, This new agreement covers the entire freshwater resources worldwide. Only resolution of current technologies, which visit http://swot.jpl.nasa.gov. life cycle of the mission, from space- will allow scientists to study small-scale Sea level–change web portal on the way By Mark Whalen

In response to critical needs to in- to policy makers and businesses, and to crease sea level–change research and other stakeholders,” said Boening. provide timely data to scientists and the “Our team aims to develop an immer- general public, JPL will develop a web sive and innovative web portal for sea portal that will serve as a “one-stop” level–change research that will address source for current information. the needs of these diverse audiences, The sea level–change portal was that will also serve as a focal point for awarded under a recent NASA Research research carried out under this opportu- Opportunities in Space and Earth Sci- nity, and that will deliver sea-level data ences call. Principal investigator is in innovative ways,” she added. Carmen Boening. Co-investigators are The portal will include interactive Andrew Bingham, Michael Greene, Ran- tools for accessing and viewing regional Sea Level Viewer 1.0, a feature of NASA’s Glocal Climate Change website, will be significantly updated and enhanced for the portal. dal Jackson, Amber Jenkins, Bill Patzert, data, a “virtual dashboard” of sea-level Laura Tenenbaum and Victor Zlotnicki. indicators, and ongoing updates through Portal team members also designed searches for sea-level data. The effort will “With increasing global temperatures a suite of editorial products that include and maintain NASA’s Global Climate also leverage resources such as the JPL warming the ocean and melting ice content articles, graphics, videos and Change website (http://climate.nasa. Physical Oceanography Distributed Active sheets and glaciers, there is an immedi- animations. By bridging gaps between gov), which enjoys a consistent top-four Archive Center. ate need both for accelerating sea level– various Earth science disciplines, the placing among Google searches, noted Web design, visualization and program- change research and for making this project aims to encompass the cross- Boening. That site is a strong model ming activities are underway this year for research accessible to scientists in dis- community needs in sea-level research for the new project, which is shooting the portal, which is scheduled to begin parate disciplines, to the general public not currently provided by existing web for a top-five ranking among Google operations in 2016. portals, said Boening. Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission moves forward Caring for a precious resource 3

By Mark Whalen Airborne Snow Observatory maps snowpack to aid water managers niverse U

As California’s current drought condi- tions persist, water has become an ever more precious resource. A JPL mission flying over the Sierra Ne- vada mountain range is giving the state’s water resource managers a helping hand by assessing snowpack and the amount of water it holds. About 75 percent of the western ’ freshwater supply comes from snowmelt. JPL’s Airborne Snow Observatory is in its second season of mapping. The current campaign over Yosemite National Park’s Tuolumne Basin observed significant changes in snowpack between flights near the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies water for the San Francisco area. “There are two things we need to know to understand the magnitude and timing of snowmelt runoff from mountain basins,” said Tom Painter, the mission’s principal JPL Director Charles Elachi, left, visits with JPL’s Megan Richardson and Frank Gehrke of the California Department of Water Resources at the Mammoth Lakes airport. investigator. “The first is how much water there is in the basin, and how it’s spatially lose a lot of money if you overfill a dam distributed. The second is the albedo, a and water spills over, which could cause reflectivity that’s a measurement of the flooding,” said Richardson. absorption of sunlight, which contributes Before JPL’s Airborne Snow Observato- 90 to 95 percent of the energy that goes ry, measurements providing information into melting snow.” for snowpack runoff forecasting were rel- The mission comprises a scanning lidar, atively sparse, said Painter. The few sur- which gives provides snow depth, and an vey sites were largely located in low to imaging spectrometer to measure the al- middle elevations, which didn’t provide bedo. The lower the albedo, the faster the a complete picture of the mountains. snowmelt rate and runoff. This led to significant errors. “Now, our The mission uses a Twin Otter aircraft flights can determine how much water based near Mammoth Lakes. For its most is in the whole valley, including the high recent campaign, JPL researcher Megan elevations,” said Richardson. Richardson was joined by co-investigator “Airborne Snow Observatory gives Frank Gehrke of the California Department us information on every patch of snow, of Water Resources. As they flew over, how deep it is and how fast it’s melt- each operated one of the two instruments ing, providing complete characterization that monitor snowpack. regularly through the snowmelt season,” “Between our first two data collections, said Painter. “These observations are the Yosemite got a fairly big snowstorm and future of water management in snow-fed we actually recorded the spike,” said Rich- regions.” ardson. “That was the first time we had been recording when we actually saw the snow levels in the area increase.” The mission’s end product is a snow Airborne Snow Observatory measurements of snow water water equivalent map, which is provided to equivalent (top) and snow albedo (bottom) for the Tuolumne the Department of Water Resources. The River Basin in the Sierra Nevada in April 2013. The snow water equivalent measured the total water contained as snow in the benefit is in how water resource managers basin at 375 million cubic meters, or enough to fill the Rose Bowl can manage a dam or reservoir. “You could about 1,180 times. 4 Honors from Japan for JPLer communications support; and modi- JPL research scientist Kentaroh fied rooms in the Microdevices Lab. Suzuki has received honors from the The company was recently awarded a Goddard trophy for Kepler News Japanese Meteorology Society. The subcontract for architectural and engi-

niverse Society Award was bestowed to Suzuki neering design services for the mission-

U during recent ceremonies in Japan, his critical data center at the Space Flight Briefs home country. Operations Facility (Phase 2). Suzuki joined JPL in 2011 after In addition to the NASA award, JTC working at Colorado State University’s Architects was honored with the FY13 Department of Atmospheric Science, JPL Thomas H. May Legacy of Excel- where he was a postdoctoral fellow and lence Award for exemplary contract research scientist. Previously, he was performance by a small business. The a postdoctoral fellow at the University award was established in memory of of Tokyo’s Center for Climate System former JPL employee Tom May to Research. He earned a Ph.D. at that honor his dedication to small business university in 2004. utilization. Suzuki’s work at JPL focuses on aerosol-cloud-precipitation interaction Lockheed Martin best large contractor and cloud microphysics. Lockheed Martin was awarded JPL’s 2013 “Large Prime Contractor of the Small-business award presented Year” for the NASA Small Business Kentaroh Suzuki JPL has named JTC Architects of Industry Award in the Center Level Arcadia the 2013 NASA Small Busi- category. The award recognizes large From left: Kepler principal investigator William Borucki of NASA Ames, JPL Engineering and Science Director ness Subcontractor of the Year, one of businesses that perform well on all Leslie Livesay, Kepler Project Manager Roger Hunter of Ames, Jim Fanson of JPL. 10 awards presented by NASA’s field NASA contracts, demonstrate sound centers. The honor recognizes com- small-business programs, and use The Kepler Space Telescope team sion development; Leslie Livesay was panies that provide “value-added and small-business contractors to perform recently received the National Space project manager from 2006 to 2008 outstanding support—on schedule and some technical requirements during Club’s preeminent award, the Dr. Robert and Jim Fanson served in that role within cost—and innovative solutions to contract execution. H. Goddard Memorial Trophy. The honor through 2009, when management was problems/issues that arise in the execu- Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., was bestowed in recognition of the transferred from JPL to Ames Research tion of the contract.” Lockheed’s FY13 work at JPL included team’s significant contribution to U.S. Center. JTC has been providing architectural the Gravity Recovery and Interior leadership in the field of rocketry and At the same ceremonies, JPL Fellow and engineering design services to JPL Laboratory, Juno, Desktop and Institu- astronautics. Adam Steltzner received the Astronau- since 2005. Among other tasks in 2013, tional Computing Environment, InSight Kepler has revolutionized exoplanet tics Engineer Award for his outstanding the company designed a new telescope- spacecraft, , Mars Recon- science and stellar astrophysics by leadership in the design and develop- mounting pier at Table Mountain; naissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey expanding the galactic census of exo- ment of the ’s designed the data center at the Space extended mission operations, as well as planet candidates and fundamentally entry, descent and landing system that Flight Operations Facility; upgraded a additional missions and research and altering our understanding of our place successfully landed the Curiosity rover stand-by generator for procurement and development subcontracts. in the galaxy. JPL managed Kepler mis- on Mars in August 2012.

testing and transmissions of sequences Randolph worked at JPL from 1978 Space Flight Center. He was later an to the spacecraft. After the loss of sig- to 1988, supporting the Test and Me- assistant professor of astronomy at P assings nal she managed the archiving, distribu- chanical Support Section and later the Boston University. tion and publication of Pathfinder data. Reliability Engineering Section. He con- At JPL, Kamp earned NASA awards for Joseph Bott, 82, a retired quality tributed to and other missions. his work on Voyager, Galileo, Viking or- assurance engineer, died Sept. 8, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Madonna, biter, Epoxi, Rosetta and Juno. He was Bott worked at JPL from 1963 to three daughters, a son-in-law and two credited as a major contributor to JPL’s 1996, earning NASA’s Exceptional grandchildren. A celebration of his life near-infrared mapping spectrometer Service Medal in 1993. He is survived Kathleen will be held May 17 at 10 a.m. at Christ efforts, and in 2003 received the NASA by his wife, Regina, and children Nicole, Spellman Lutheran Church in Valencia, Calif. Individual Exceptional Service Medal for Ian and Xavier. contributions to Galileo’s near-infrared mapping spectrometer data processing. Dora Mata, 69, an executive staff He was also an author or co-author of coordinator in the Engineering and Sci- 190 scientific publications. ence Directorate, died March 2. READ AND SUBMIT CLASSIFIED ADS Frank A memorial service was held April 5 AT JPL’s online news source Mata had worked at JPL since 1997. Randolph in Monrovia. http://jplspace She supported the Discovery and Kepler Her work on the Mars Exploration program offices as well as the direc- Rovers involved a telemetry diction- E-mail us at torate offices for Astronomy, Physics ary and developing a process to synch [email protected] and Space Technology and Engineering flight software and ground systems and Science. In 2009 she received a weekly, an innovation that has been Lucas NASA Honor Award as a member of the further developed for other Mars and Kamp business and administrative team for Earth projects. Astrophysicist Lucas Kamp, 68, Kepler. A celebration of life event is being died March 30. He had been with JPL planned for later this year. Please con- since 1981. tact Trina Ray at JPL for information. Kamp from 1972–74 researched model Editor stellar atmospheres, spectroscopy and radiative transfer as a National Mark Whalen Thomas Bursch, 78, a retired elec- Research Council affiliate at Goddard Dora Mata trical engineer, died March 16. Design Bursch, who joined JPL in 1978, Audrey Steffan worked in the Imaging Systems Sec- tion. Among the projects he contribut- Barbara Insua Correction R etirees ed to was the Wide Field and Planetary Camera for the Hubble Space Tele- A story in the print edition of the The following employees retired in Production scope. He retired in 1994. April issue of Universe on the BICEP2 April: Robert Chamberlain, 51 years, David Hinkle Mata is survived by daughters Shelley He is survived by his wife, Sandra; telescope’s observation of ripples from Section 393K; Earl Higa, 42 years, and Nicole, and grandchildren Jeffrey, sons Scott and Sean; and grandchil- the very early universe included the Section 392A; Dorothy Crawford, 40 Photography Tara, Tracy, Joey and Kailey. A memo- dren Gage, Mason, Bridget, Amber and question, “Did [cosmic] inflation origi- years, Section 171B; Edwin Kan, 36 JPL Photo Lab rial service was held at the Stone Sierra. The Bursch family requests nate from a time when the forces of na- years, Section 382A; Richard Fretz, consideration of donations in his name Funeral Home in Upland, Calif. ture—gravity, electromagnetism and the 31 years, Section 398D; Kenneth Er- to Panorama City Chapter of Grandpar- strong and weak nuclear forces—were ickson, 23 years, Section 5131; Man- Universe is published by the Office ents as Parents (www.GrandparentsAs- Systems engineer Kathleen Spell- originally unified, as scientists believe , 23 years, Section 333C; of Communications and Education Parents.org). fred Richter man, 47, died March 14. they must have been?” Gravity should , 18 years, Section of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Robert Bonitz Spellman joined JPL in 1989. On Mars not have been included in the list of 347G; Thomas Lynch, 17 years, Sec- 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pathfinder she served as sequence Frank Randolph, 91, a retired forces involved at the grand unification tion 2661; Jose Rodriguera Ochoa, team lead in charge of development, engineer, died March 16. Pasadena, CA 91109. energy scale. 14 years, Section 2126.