NASA's Planetary Science Lunar Activities and Plans

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NASA Lunar Science Activities James L. Green Planetary Science Division NASA Headquarters Washington DC 20546 [email protected] NASA’s Planetary Science Division (PSD) program encompasses a broad range of missions to many destinations in the solar system but the Earth’s Moon holds a special place in these efforts. Our planetary science missions are either strategic or openly competed through announcements of opportunity and are led by a principal investigator (PI). In exploring any particular solar system object, NASA has followed a general paradigm of “flyby, orbit, land, rove, and return.” This prescription has been followed most completely for investigations of the Moon and Mars. The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) will be launching the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in 2008 in preparation for manned missions to the Moon. LRO is a strategic mission with competed instrumentation to support exploration goals. After one year of LRO observations, ESMD will transition the spacecraft operations to the PSD for its prime science mission phase. The two competitive PI mission lines in the Planetary Science Division are called Discovery and New Frontiers, both of which have the potential to support Lunar missions. Currently there are three Phase-A studies in competition in the Discovery program which includes the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission by Maria Zuber (PI), MIT. The down-selection for Discovery will be announced later this year. GRAIL proposes to use high-quality gravity field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The New Frontiers program will next be in competition by late 2008 providing a potential opportunity for a sample return mission from the South Pole-Aitken basin. PSD is proud of its participation on a number of missions with our foreign space agency partners. The PSD funded participation in the Chandrayaan-1 Mission is the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (MMM) instrument that was just delivered to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for integration onto the spacecraft. The Chandrayaan-1 mission will conduct remote sensing during its 2-year mission 100 km above the lunar surface. MMM is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer (Carlé Pieters PI, Brown University) at 0.4-3.0 µm wavelengths that will provide the first map of the entire lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolution, revealing its mineralogy. Additional resources are being made available to US scientists to perform fundamental and applied Lunar research through the LASER (Lunar Advance Science and Exploration Research) opportunity being jointly funded by PSD and ESMD. In addition, 14 new small Lunar surface instrument studies have been selected that are being designed to be deployed by astronauts. As NASA develops its strategic plans for future Lunar missions, the PSD will continue to embrace international participation and look for opportunities to contribute as appropriate. In order to encourage multi-agency efforts in developing Lunar missions the PSD will be releasing yearly calls for Missions of Opportunities beginning in 2008. This effort will enable NASA Planetary Science funded groups to better meet international mission investigation milestones and schedules thereby fostering a better environment for international cooperation on Lunar missions. PRINCIPAL AUTHOR’S BIO (~50 WORDS) JAMES L. GREEN is the Director for NASA’s Planetary Science Division. He developed NASA’s first internet the Space Physics Analysis Network, has been the Head of the National Space Science Data Center, and a co-investigator on the IMAGE mission. Green has published widely on various phenomena in planetary magnetospheres. .

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Nasa Advisory Council Human Exploration and Operations

NASA ADVISORY COUNCIL HUMAN EXPLORATION AND OPERATIONS COMMITTEE NASA Headquarters Washington, DC January 13-14, 2021 MEETING REPORT _____________________________________________________________ N. Wayne Hale, Chair ____________________________________________________________ Bette Siegel, Executive Secretary Table of Contents Call to Order 3 Commercial Crew Program 5 Public Comments 8 Artemis Program 9 SMD Artemis CLPS Activities 11 Moon to Mars Update 12 Solar System and Beyond 12 HERMES Instrument Update Artemis III SDT Update Advancing Biological and Physical Sciences Through Lunar Exploration 14 SMD Mars Science Update 14 Artemis Accords 15 Planetary Protection Activities 15 Discussion/Findings and Recommendations 16 Appendix A- Attendees Appendix B- HEOC Membership Appendix C- Presentations Appendix D- Agenda Appendix E- Chat Transcript Prepared by Joan M. Zimmermann Zantech IT, Inc. 2 January 13, 2021 Call to order and welcome Dr. Bette Siegel, Executive Secretary of the Human Exploration and Operations Committee (HEOC), called the meeting to order, and provided details of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which provides governance rules for the meeting. She introduced Mr. N. Wayne Hale, Chair of the HEOC. Mr. Hale noted to the public that this particular HEO meeting counts as the last meeting of 2020, and the next scheduled meeting in March/April will be the first meeting of 2021. Mr. Hale welcomed three new members, Ms. Lynn Cline, Mr. David Thompson, and Mr. Kwatsi Alibaruho. The present meeting is focused on an update on the HEO areas, and a joint meeting with the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Science Committee. Mr. Hale asked if NAC Chair, General Lester Lyles, who was attending the meeting virtually, had any remarks to proffer.
+ New Horizons

Media Contacts NASA Headquarters Policy/Program Management Dwayne Brown New Horizons Nuclear Safety (202) 358-1726 [email protected] The Johns Hopkins University Mission Management Applied Physics Laboratory Spacecraft Operations Michael Buckley (240) 228-7536 or (443) 778-7536 [email protected] Southwest Research Institute Principal Investigator Institution Maria Martinez (210) 522-3305 [email protected] NASA Kennedy Space Center Launch Operations George Diller (321) 867-2468 [email protected] Lockheed Martin Space Systems Launch Vehicle Julie Andrews (321) 853-1567 [email protected] International Launch Services Launch Vehicle Fran Slimmer (571) 633-7462 [email protected] NEW HORIZONS Table of Contents Media Services Information ................................................................................................ 2 Quick Facts .............................................................................................................................. 3 Pluto at a Glance ...................................................................................................................... 5 Why Pluto and the Kuiper Belt? The Science of New Horizons ............................... 7 NASA’s New Frontiers Program ........................................................................................14 The Spacecraft ........................................................................................................................15 Science Payload ...............................................................................................................16
PSAD-81-2 Support Service Contracting at Johnson Space

BY THEU.S. GENERAL ACCOUNTli’JG OFFICE Report To The Administrator, National Aeronautics And Space Administration S@pportService Contracting At Johnson Space Center Needs Strengthening T National Aeronautics and S ace Administration Sl about $175 million annual Py on support service Cl at Johnson Space Center. GAO tested the way si of these contracts are administered and found --a contractor was working without approved llllllllllllllll113606 work orders, --Government-furnished equipment was unac- counted for, --questionable reimbursements occurred for con- tractor costs, I --contract funds increased before the need was justified, I --contracting officers were unaware of their re- sponsibilitres and unfamiliar with contract terms, and I --some contracting officers had a general attitude that small dollar value contracts are not worthy of adequate attention. I ‘/A0 believes overreliance on cost-type contracts which quire greater administration efforts than fixed-price )ntracts contributes to these contracting weaknesses recommends that the National Aeronautics and ace Administration take corrective actions. mp81s2 OCTOBER 21,1900 + Request for copies of GAO reports should be sent to: U.S. General Accounting Office Document Handling and Information Services Facility P.O. Box 6015 Gaithersburg, Md. 20760 Telephone (202) 275-6241 The first five copies of individual reports are free of charge. Additional copies of bound audit reports are $3.25 each. Additional copies of unbound report (i.e., letter reports) and most other publications are $1.00 each. There will be a 25% discount on all orders for 100 or more copies mailed to a single address. Sales orders must be prepaid on a cash, check, or money order basis.
MAVEN—Definitive Answers About Mars Climate History

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Planetary Science

Mission Directorate: Science Theme: Planetary Science Theme Overview Planetary Science is a grand human enterprise that seeks to discover the nature and origin of the celestial bodies among which we live, and to explore whether life exists beyond Earth. The scientific imperative for Planetary Science, the quest to understand our origins, is universal. How did we get here? Are we alone? What does the future hold? These overarching questions lead to more focused, fundamental science questions about our solar system: How did the Sun's family of planets, satellites, and minor bodies originate and evolve? What are the characteristics of the solar system that lead to habitable environments? How and where could life begin and evolve in the solar system? What are the characteristics of small bodies and planetary environments and what potential hazards or resources do they hold? To address these science questions, NASA relies on various flight missions, research and analysis (R&A) and technology development. There are seven programs within the Planetary Science Theme: R&A, Lunar Quest, Discovery, New Frontiers, Mars Exploration, Outer Planets, and Technology. R&A supports two operating missions with international partners (Rosetta and Hayabusa), as well as sample curation, data archiving, dissemination and analysis, and Near Earth Object Observations. The Lunar Quest Program consists of small robotic spacecraft missions, Missions of Opportunity, Lunar Science Institute, and R&A. Discovery has two spacecraft in prime mission operations (MESSENGER and Dawn), an instrument operating on an ESA Mars Express mission (ASPERA-3), a mission in its development phase (GRAIL), three Missions of Opportunities (M3, Strofio, and LaRa), and three investigations using re-purposed spacecraft: EPOCh and DIXI hosted on the Deep Impact spacecraft and NExT hosted on the Stardust spacecraft.
Orion Flight Test Press

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Group Icon 2019 Speaker Biographies

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Space Food and Nutrition

Educational Product National Aeronautics and Educators Grades K–8 Space Administration EG-1999-02-115-HQEG-1998-12-115-HQ SPACE FOOD AND NUTRITION An Educator’s Guide With Activities in Science and Mathematics Space and Food Nutrition—An Educator’s Guide With Activities in Science and Mathematics is available in electronic format through NASA Spacelink—one of the Agency’s electronic resources specifically developed for use by the educational community. The system may be accessed at the following address: http://spacelink.nasa.gov/products SPACE FOOD AND NUTRITION An Educator’s Guide With Activities in Science and Mathematics National Aeronautics and Space Administration This publication is in the Public Domain and is not protected by copyright. Permission is not required for duplication. EG-1999-02-115-HQ Space Food and Nutrition An Educator’s Guide With Activities in Science and Mathematics Acknowledgments National Aeronautics and Space Administration Special thanks to the following Office of Human Resources and Education contributors and reviewers Education Division Washington, D.C. Charles T. Bourland, Ph.D. System Manager, Space Station Food Education Working Group Flight Crew Support Division NASA Johnson Space Center NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas Debbie A. Brown Writers ISS Education Liaison Angelo A. Casaburri Education Working Group Aerospace Education Services Program NASA Johnson Space Center NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas Gregory L. Vogt, Ed.D. Crew Educational Affairs Liaison Cathy A. Gardner Education Working Group Dickinson Independent School District NASA Johnson Space Center Dickinson, Texas Karol L. Yeatts, Ed.D. Editor 1998 Einstein Fellow Jane A. George Miami Dade County Public Schools Teaching From Space Program Miami, Florida NASA Headquarters Washington, D.C.
GRAIL Reveals Secrets of the Lunar Interior

GRAIL Reveals Secrets of the Lunar Interior — Dr. Patrick J. McGovern, Lunar and Planetary Institute A mini-flotilla of spacecraft sent to the Moon in the past few years by several nations has revealed much about the characteristics of the lunar surface via techniques such as imaging, spectroscopy, and laser ranging. While the achievements of these missions have been impressive, only GRAIL has seen deeply enough to reveal inner secrets that the Moon holds. LRecent Lunar Missions Country Name Launch Date Status ESA Small Missions for Advanced September 27, 2003 Ended with lunar surface impact on Research in Technology-1 (SMART-1) September 3, 2006 USA Acceleration, Reconnection, February 27, 2007 Extension of the THEMIS mission; ended Turbulence and Electrodynamics of in 2012 the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) Japan SELENE (Kaguya) September 14, 2007 Ended with lunar surface impact on June 10, 2009 PChina Chang’e-1 October 24, 2007 Taken out of orbit on March 1, 2009 India Chandrayaan-1 October 22, 2008 Two-year mission; ended after 315 days due to malfunction and loss of contact USA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) June 18, 2009 Completed one-year primary mission; now in five-year extended mission USA Lunar Crater Observation and June 18, 2009 Ended with lunar surface impact on Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) October 9, 2009 China Chang’e-2 October 1, 2010 Primary mission lasted for six months; extended mission completed flyby of asteroid 4179 Toutatis in December 2012 USA Gravity Recovery and Interior September 10, 2011 Ended with lunar surface impact on I Laboratory (GRAIL) December 17, 2012 To probe deeper, NASA launched the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission: twin spacecraft (named “Ebb” and “Flow” by elementary school students from Montana) flying in formation over the lunar surface, tracking each other to within a sensitivity of 50 nanometers per second, or one- twenty-thousandth of the velocity that a snail moves [1], according to GRAIL Principal Investigator Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
New Horizons 2 Alan Stern (Swri), Rick Binzel (MIT), Hal Levison

New Horizons 2 Alan Stern (SwRI), Rick Binzel (MIT), Hal Levison (SwRI), Rosaly Lopes (JPL), Bob Millis (Lowell Observatory), and Jeff Moore (NASA Ames) New Horizons is the inaugural mission in NASA’s New Frontiers program—a series of mid-sized planetary exploration projects. This mission was competitively selected in 2001 after a peer review competition between industry-university teams. The mission is on track toward a planned launch in January 2006—just over 6 months hence. The primary objective of New Horizons (NH) is to make the first reconnaissance of the solar system’s farthest planet, Pluto, its comparably sized satellite Charon. If an extended mission is approved, New Horizons may be able to also flyby a Kuiper Belt Object (KBOs) farther from the Sun. The exploration of the Kuiper Belt and Pluto-Charon was ranked as the highest new start priority for planetary exploration by the National Research Council’s recently completed (2002) Decadal Survey for Planetary Science. In accomplishing its goals, the mission is expected to reveal fundamental new insights into the nature of the outer solar system, the formation history of the planets, the workings of binary worlds, and the ancient repository of water and organic building blocks called the Kuiper Belt. Beyond its scientific ambitions, New Horizons is also breaking ground in lowering the cost of exploration of the outer solar system—for it is being built and launched for what are literally dimes on the dollar compared to deep outer solar system missions like Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini. The New Horizons spacecraft carries a suite of seven advanced, miniaturized instruments to obtain detailed imagery, mapping spectroscopy, thermal mapping, gravitational data, and in situ plasma composition, density, and energy sampling of the exotic, icy Pluto- Charon binary and a modest-sized (~50 km diameter) KBO.
The 24 Million Km Link with the Mercury Laser Altimeter

Te 24 Milion Km Link wit te Mercury Laser Altmetr Jay Steigelman Dave Skillman Barry Coyle John F. Cavanaugh Jan F. McGarry Gregory A. Neumann Xiaoli Sun Thomas W. Zagwodzki Dave Smith Maria Zuber MOLA Science Team Meeting Bishop’s Lodge, Santa Fe, NM August 24-25, 2005 Test Objectives Messenger: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging 6.6 year travel time to Mercury... There’s not a whole lot to do during this time. Dave Smith called a meeting and asked, “What about a transponder experiment?” Official goals were: ➡ Verify laser performance; verify laser pointing and receiver boresight with respect to MESSENGER spacecraft coordinates. ➡ Verify MLA ranging function and performance using a ground laser to simulate backscattered pulses. ➡ Calibrate MLA boresight offset with Mercury Dual Image System (MDIS). Recent Publications BREVIA the received pulse shapes. Sixteen consecutive pulses were recorded at 19:47:24 UTC on 27 and 24 May; more were recorded at 19:42:02 Two-Way Laser Link over UTC on 31 May. Simultaneously, a laser at GGAO was beamed upward toward MLA. The uplink pulses, along Interplanetary Distance with noise triggers from the sunlit Earth, were received within a 15-ms range window during David E. Smith,1* Maria T. Zuber,1,2 Xiaoli Sun,1 Gregory A. Neumann,1,2 1 1 1 each 125-ms shot interval. Inspection of the John F. Cavanaugh, Jan F. McGarry, Thomas W. Zagwodzki stored instrument data revealed 90 pulses over a 30-min time frame, 17 on multiple channels, he detection and precise timing of low- Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory whose timing matched the GGAO fire times.
ESD February 2018

EXPLORATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT COMBINED MONTHLY REPORT February 2018 Orion: A Promising Future SLS: The Intertank Journeys to Alabama EGS: Crew Access Arm Installed on Mobile Launcher www.nasa.gov ORION 4 A Promising Future for Orion 5 Orion Passes Thermal Cycle Testing 6 Langley Hands Orion AA-2 Crew Module Off to Johnson 7 Moon, Mars and Worlds Beyond 8 Exploration Suppliers Visit Nation’s Capital 9 Orion Makes Its Way Across the U.S.A. 10 Orion Supplier Awarded Subcontractor of the Year 11 Supplier Spotlight: Systima Technologies, Inc. SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM 13 Intertank on the Move 14 RS-25 Engine Going Beyond the Max During Stennis Test 14 I Am Building SLS 15 What’s New in SLS Social Media 15 Spaceflight Partners: Unison Industries, LLC 16 SLS on the Road EXPLORATION GROUND SYSTEMS 19 Orion Crew Access Arm Installed on Mobile Launcher 20 Exploration Ground Systems Talks Budget 21 NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building 22 Faces of EGS – Mike Van Houten ORION FEBRUARY 2018 A Promising Future for Orion On February 12, Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, Jr., discussed NASA’s part in the Federal fiscal year 2019 budget proposal and what it means for the future of deep space exploration. A PROMISING FUTURE FOR ORION On February 12, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot shared insight on the fiscal year 2019 budget proposal for the Agency. The administration’s confidence in NASA leadership points to America leading the way back to the Moon, and on to Mars.