Julie Castillo-Rogez (JPL/Caltech/NASA)Les Johnson (Marshall Space Flight Center/NASA)

And the NEAScout Team

Edit as appropriate

Presentation to SBAG – January 2016

PayloadNASA Centers

Strategic Knowledge Gaps Addressed

Mission Concept

BioSentinelARC/JSC

Human health/performance in high-radiation space environments• Fundamental effects on biological systems

of ionizing radiation in space environments

Study radiation-induced DNA damage of live organisms in cis-lunar space; correlate with measurements on ISS and Earth

Lunar FlashlightJPL/MSFC

Lunar resource potential• Quantity and distribution of water and other

volatiles in lunar cold traps

Locate ice deposits in the Moon’s permanently shadowed craters

Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) ScoutMSFC/JPL

Human NEA mission target identification• NEA size, rotation state (rate/pole position)How to work on and interact with NEA surface• NEA surface mechanical properties

Flyby/rendezvous and characterize one NEA that is representative of a potential human mission target

AES EM-1 Secondary Payload Overview

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• HEOMD’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) selected 3 concepts for further refinement toward a combined Mission Concept Review (MCR) and System Requirements Review (SRR) completed in August 2014

- All projects are in Phase B• Primary selection criteria:

- Relevance to Space Exploration Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs)- Life cycle cost- Synergistic use of previously demonstrated technologies- Optimal use of available civil servant workforce

• Completed a Non-Advocate Review of the Science Plan

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INSPIRE, MarCO, and EM-1 CubeSatsas Stepping Stones to Deep Space

LEON 3 ‘Sphinx’

X-Band

Transponder ‘Iris’

Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout

WHY NEA Scout?– Characterize a NEA with an imager to address key Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs)– Demonstrates low cost reconnaissance capability for HEOMD (6U CubeSat)

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LEVERAGES:• Solar sail development expertise (NanoSail-D, Solar Sail Demonstration Project, LightSail-A/B)• CubeSat developments and standards (MarCO, University & Industry experience)• Commonalities with other AES secondary payloads

Key Technical Constraints: • 6U Cubesat and ~86 m2 sail, expected dispenser compatibility and optimize cost• Target must be within ~1.0 AU distance from Earth due to telecom limitations• Slow flyby with target-relative navigation on close approach

MEASUREMENTS: NEA volume, spectral type, spin mode and orbital properties, address key physical and regolith mechanical SKG

• ≥80% surface coverage imaging at ≤50 cm/px• Spectral range: 400-900 nm (incl. 4 color channels)• ≥30% surface coverage imaging at ≤10 cm/px

Near Earth Asteroid Scout Mission Overview

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JPL IntelliCam(Updated OCO-3 Context Camera)

Target Detection and Approach: 50K km, Light source observation

SKGs: Ephemeris determination and composition assessment (color)

Close Proximity ScienceHigh-resolution imaging,

10 /px GSD over >30% surfaceSKGs: Local morphology

Regolith properties

NEA Reconnaissance <100 km distance at encounter

50 cm/px resolution over 80% surfaceSKGs: volume, global shape, spin

properties, local environment

Reference stars

Target

NEAScout Targets an NHAT

• NHATS database contains targets from 1 m to >1 km

• Do not all carry same value: low orbit condition code, >10 m, synodic period < 10 yr are of high priority

• Targets accessible to NEAScout are < 50m

• Expectations is that ~5 new NHATS targets be found each year, with enhanced assets

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Rendezvous Target Search

• Telecom Distance (AU)– blue < .25– green < .5– orange < .75– red < 1

• OCC

△ under 2

□ under 4

▽ under 7

• Appx diameter– small < ~15 m– med. < ~30 m

– large < ~50 m

Local minima for flight time. Flight time increases linearly with pre-escape loiter timeFlight time increases non-linearly with delayed escapes 8

Baseline Target: 1991 VG

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Backup Target

Absolute magnitude

30% albedo Diameter (m)

5% albedo Diameter (m)

Orbit Condition

Code

ObservationOpportunity prior to launch

2013 BS45 25.9 11 51 0 2015-01 (Optical)

• H=28.4±0.7• Diameter ~ 5-12 meters• Albedo is unknown• Position is known within ~2700 km (1-) but optical observation opportunity

in July ‘17 will decrease uncertainty to a few 100s km• Rotation period between a few minutes and less than 1 hr• Unlikely to have a companion• Unlikely to retain an exosphere or dust cloud

– Solar radiation pressure sweeps dust on timescales of hours or day

Ground-Based Target Reconnaissance

• Paul Abell and Vishnu Reddy to coordinate observations• 1991 VG will be in sight from ~July 2017 to March 2018, H~23.5• Arecibo may be able to observe VG but with low SNR between January

16-28, 2018– Doppler uncertainties are 70 Hz on January 16, 2018, would be reduced to ~1

Hz after detection• Optical observations best from Southern hemisphere (SOAR, NOAO)

– 4-telescopes ok for astrometry and lightcurves– Larger telescope needed for colors

• Community is welcome to participate in observation campaign – see future announcement

• Will request Director’s Discretionary Time since mission-specific target

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Ref

lect

ance

• Inherited from EECAM on Mars 2020 rover and OCO-3 programs (harsh environmental testing, leverages development dollars)

• Large detector array (20 MP) yields small iFOV (0.125 mrad) and wide FOV (15 deg.)

• Enables meeting 10 cm/pix at ~800 m closest approach distance

• Enable target detection from ~50K km

Instrument Summary

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Proximity Science

Low phase angles for geology imaging

Flyby velocity ~ 20m/s

Target rotation period is key uncertainty on the science capture timeline

Size

Rotation

Morphology, Environment

Local morphology

12Distance (km)

Proximity Science - Movie

NEAScout Project Status

• Project is on track for August Design Review• Solar sail deployment pathfinder developed and tested. EDU

in development• Long lead items identified and in process of being procured

(esp. camera, telecom)• Science software development is on track• Data management plan is in development but data pipeline

development effort is pushed to Phase E (cruise) for budgetary reasons– Data archival will depend on budget available for Phase E– No plan to expand the science team until ~mid-cruise

• No plan to add science goals at this stage• Official announcement of manifest on SLS EM-1 forthcoming

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