New Views of the Moon 2 – Asia 2018 (LPI Contrib. No. 2070) 6014.pdf

NASA’S HUMAN EXPLORATION AND OPERATIONS MISSION DIRECTORATE’S LUNAR ACTIVITIES. D. B. J. Bussey1 1NASA HQ, 300 E Street SW, Washington DC 20546 USA, ben.bussey@nasa.gov

Introduction: NASA’s Human Exploration and landers that can enable commercial payload transporta- Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) has a num- tion services to the lunar surface for both public and ber of ongoing lunar-related activities, relating to both private customers. NASA competitively selected three robotic and human exploration. industry partners (Astrobotic Technology, Masten ISECG Science White Paper: Space agencies Space Systems, Moon Express), and entered into no- participating in the International Space Exploration funds-exchanged Space Act Agreements (SAA) with Coordination Group (ISECG) are discussing an inter- each of them. With NASA’s support through these national approach for human and robotic space explo- highly collaborative technical partnerships, each of the ration to achieve the social, intellectual and economic industry partners has made substantial progress in de- veloping their lunar landers, while managing their re- benefits. The status of this work is documented in spective businesses with complete autonomy. Through ISECG's Global Exploration Roadmap (GER). The these government-industry partnerships, NASA has GER reflects a coordinated international effort to pre- provided in-kind contributions including technical ex- pare for collaborative space exploration missions be- pertise, access to test facilities, software, and the loan- ginning with the International Space Station and con- ing of equipment. Based on the significant progress tinuing to the lunar vicinity, the Moon, asteroids and each partner has made, NASA announced in Novem- Mars. While scientific research is not necessarily the ber 2017 that the agency would extend and update the main driver for human exploration, space agencies of no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreements with the the ISECG acknowledge the explicit stakes of scien- goal of seeing the first commercial cargo deliveries to tific discovery in space exploration. Therefore, the the Moon over the next few years. agencies chartered the production of a Science White Paper that describes the scientific opportunities repre- Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO): sented by near-term human exploration beyond low- HEOMD is collaborating the Korean space agency Earth orbit (LEO). Specifically it considered the sci- (KARI) on their KPLO lunar mission. As part of this ence enabled by human missions to three destinations. collaboration NASA is flying the ShadowCam instru- 1) A deep space habitat in the lunar vicinity, 2) the ment on the KPLO spacecraft. ShadowCam is a very lunar surface, and 3) asteroids. The SWP was released sensitive camera that uses light scattered from the il- in early 2018. luminated inner rims of polar impact craters to image Deep Space Gateway Concept Science Work- the floor of these craters. The expected spatial resolu- shop: Following on from the ISECG science white tion of ShadowCam is better than 2 meters. Shadow- paper, NASA is holding a workshop in February 2018 Cam goals include searching for spatial and temporal to discuss the science that could be enabled by the distribution of volatiles, monitoring movement of vola- presence of a deep space gateway concept in the lunar tiles within permanently shadowed regions, and reveal- vicinity. This workshop is jointly hosted by HEOMD ing the geomorphology, accessibility, and geotechnical and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The characteristics of cold traps. KPLO is scheduled to workshop aims to encompass a wide range of science launch in 2020. disciplines including Earth Sciences, Heliophysics, Cubesats on EM-1: The first launch of SLS will Astrophysics, Fundamental physics, Lunar & Planetary send an Orion spacecraft around the Moon. NASA is Sciences, Life Sciences, and Space Biology. One of the leveraging this launch to also fly 13 cubesats, several goals of the workshop is to discuss what resources the of which were selected to increase our understanding gateway would have to provide in order to facilitate the of lunar resources. Lunar Flashlight will use multiple types of science investigations that are proposed. To lasers to search for volatiles in permanently shadowed aid these discussions, there will also be crosscutting craters. Lunar IceCube will look for water in sunlit sessions covering topics such as External Payloads, regions using a spectrometer. And LunIr, by Lockheed Planetary Samples, Internal Payloads, Telerobotics, Martin, will fly a Mid Wave Infra red sensor to study and use of the gateway as communication infrastruc- the lunar surface. ture for cubesats of lunar surface payloads. Lunar CATALYST: Since 2014, NASA’s Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar CATALYST) initiative has been accelerating the development of U.S. private-sector robotic lunar