NASA 2015 Discovery proposals

[Star One]

Updates from the briefing.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Elkins-Tanton notes Psyche mission plans to carry optical communications experiment payload; test it out at 3 AU.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Levison: selected chemical propulsion over electric for improved performance, “have to cover a lot of real estate” out at Trojans.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Green: NEOCam funding for 1-yr extended Phase A study will let them address issues identified in evaluation of proposal.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Levison: we’ll do flybys of Trojan asteroids; fits into the NASA philosophy of exploration that starts with flybys before orbiters/landers.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Green notes that while no Venus missions made the Discovery cut, Venus is one of the potential next New Frontiers missions.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Green: looking to do a cadence of 32-36 months for the Discovery program going forward, similar to decadal recommendations.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
NASA’s Jim Green: delighted to have the opportunity to select 2. Tough decisions to make.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, on the Psyche mission to the metal asteroid of the same name: we have never seen a metal world.

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust
Hal Levinson notes that the diversity of Trojans is a blessing and a curse (which he later amends to a “challenge”) for a mission like Lucy.

[Blackstar]

Something I will add about the possibility that now that a Trojan asteroid mission has been selected for Discovery, there is unlikely to be a Trojan mission selected for New Frontiers:

You really need to look at the scientific requirements for the New Frontiers Trojan mission and compare it to what the Lucy Trojan mission will do. You cannot do 100% New Frontiers level science on a Discovery-class budget. So the question really is what will not be done by Lucy that is still important? And is it important enough to justify a New Frontiers-class Trojan mission?

[Star One]

I am impressed they are going to try out optical communications from 3 AU.

[vapour_nudge]

We also get a bonus main belt asteroid flyby in 2025 with Lucy. (Donaldjohanson  - 52246)

[Blackstar]

We also get a bonus main belt asteroid flyby in 2025 with Lucy. (Donaldjohanson  - 52246)

Did he say that in extended mission Lucy could even fly by Psyche?

[yg1968]

I recorded the last half hour of the briefing (i.e., I missed about 15 minutes):

[as58]

We also get a bonus main belt asteroid flyby in 2025 with Lucy. (Donaldjohanson  - 52246)

Did he say that in extended mission Lucy could even fly by Psyche?

Yes, Levison said that one of the possible extended mission targets is Psyche.

[Sam Ho]

NASA Selects Two New Discovery Missions
01.04.2017

NASA has selected two missions that have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system – a time less than 10 million years after the birth of our Sun. The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation, with the goal of launching in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
 
“Lucy will visit a target-rich environment of Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids, while Psyche will study a unique metal asteroid that’s never been visited before,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is what Discovery Program missions are all about – boldly going to places we’ve never been to enable groundbreaking science.”

Lucy, a robotic spacecraft, is scheduled to launch in October 2021. It’s slated to arrive at its first destination, a main belt asteroid, in 2025. From 2027 to 2033, Lucy will explore six Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are trapped by Jupiter’s gravity in two swarms that share the planet’s orbit, one leading and one trailing Jupiter in its 12-year circuit around the sun. The Trojans are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system and may have formed far beyond Jupiter’s current orbit.
 
“This is a unique opportunity,” said Harold F. Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins.”
 
Lucy will build on the success of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, using newer versions of the RALPH and LORRI science instruments that helped enable the mission’s achievements. Several members of the Lucy mission team are veterans of the New Horizons mission. Lucy also will build on the success of the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu, with the OTES instrument and several members of the OSIRIS-REx team.
 
The Psyche mission will explore one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt – a giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, about three times farther away from the Sun than is the Earth. This asteroid measures about 130 miles in diameter and, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, is thought to be comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core. Scientists wonder whether Psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet that could have been as large as Mars, but which lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago.
 
The mission will help scientists understand how planets and other bodies separated into their layers – including cores, mantles and crusts – early in their histories.
 
“This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world – not one of rock or ice, but of metal,” said Psyche Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. “16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space.”
 
Psyche is targeted to launch in October of 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, following an Earth gravity assist spacecraft maneuver in 2024 and a Mars flyby in 2025.
 
In addition to selecting the Lucy and Psyche missions for formulation, the agency will extend funding for the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) project for an additional year. The NEOCam space telescope is designed to survey regions of space closest to Earth’s orbit, where potentially hazardous asteroids may be found.
 
“These are true missions of discovery that integrate into NASA’s larger strategy of investigating how the solar system formed and evolved,” said NASA’s Planetary Science Director Jim Green. “We’ve explored terrestrial planets, gas giants, and a range of other bodies orbiting the Sun. Lucy will observe primitive remnants from farther out in the solar system, while Psyche will directly observe the interior of a planetary body. These additional pieces of the puzzle will help us understand how the Sun and its family of planets formed, changed over time, and became places where life could develop and be sustained – and what the future may hold.”
 
NASA’s other missions to asteroids began with the NEAR orbiter of asteroid Eros, which arrived in 2000, and continues with Dawn, which orbited Vesta and now is in an extended mission phase at Ceres. The OSIRIS-REx mission, which launched on Sept. 8, 2016, is speeding toward a 2018 rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu, and will deliver a sample back to Earth in 2023. Each mission focuses on a different aspect of asteroid science to give scientists the broader picture of solar system formation and evolution.

https://discovery.nasa.gov/news/index.cfml?ID=1171

[Sam Ho]

SwRI to lead NASA’s Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojans
Small, primitive worlds orbiting near Jupiter to provide clues about origins of the solar system

Boulder, Colo. — January 4, 2017 — NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) to lead Lucy, a landmark Discovery mission to perform the first reconnaissance of the Trojans, a population of primitive asteroids orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. The Lucy spacecraft will launch in 2021 to study six of these exciting worlds.

“This is a unique opportunity,” said Dr. Harold F. Levison, a program director and chief scientist in SwRI’s Boulder office and the principal investigator of the mission. “Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins.”

Lucy will use a proven Lockheed Martin spacecraft and remote-sensing instrument suite to study the geology, surface composition, and bulk physical properties of these bodies at close range. The payload includes three complementary imaging and mapping instruments, including a color imaging and infrared mapping spectrometer from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), a high-resolution visible imager from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and a thermal infrared spectrometer from Arizona State University. In addition, Lucy will perform radio science investigations using its telecommunications system to determine the masses and densities of the Trojan targets.

“One of the most puzzling characteristics of the Trojans is that they are very different from one another,” said Levison. “This diversity was caused by the evolution of the outer planets and, as such, can be used to detangle their history.” To realize the full scientific potential of the Trojans requires studying all types.

“Understanding the causes of the differences between the Trojans will provide unique and critical knowledge of planetary origins, the source of volatiles and organics on the terrestrial planets, and the evolution of the planetary system as a whole,” said Dr. Catherine Olkin, a planetary scientist in SwRI’s Space Science and Engineering Division and the mission’s deputy principal investigator.

“The Lucy mission is one of those rare moments where a single mission can have a major impact on our understanding of such fundamental questions,” added Dr. Keith Noll, chief of the GSFC Planetary Systems Laboratory and a project scientist for the mission.

Lucy will launch in October 2021 and fly by its targets between 2025 and 2033. In all, Lucy will study six Trojans and one main belt asteroid. SwRI is the principal investigator institution and will lead the science investigation. GSFC will provide overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver will build the spacecraft.

Editors: Images to accompany this release are available at: http://www.swri.org/press/2017/nasa-lucy-mission-jupiter-trojan.htm.

For more information, contact Deb Schmid, (210) 522-2254, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, PO Drawer 28510, San Antonio, TX 78228-0510.

http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2017/nasa-lucy-mission-jupiter-trojan.htm

[Sam Ho]

ASU to lead NASA space exploration mission for 1st time

By Karin Valentine — January 4, 2017

Arizona State University’s Psyche Mission, a journey to a metal asteroid, has been selected for flight under NASA’s Discovery Program, a series of lower-cost, highly focused robotic space missions that are exploring the solar system.

The mission’s spacecraft is expected to launch in 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, where it will spend 20 months in orbit, mapping it and studying its properties.

It is the first time ASU will lead a NASA space exploration mission. The project is capped at $450 million.

“This mission, visiting the asteroid Psyche, will be the first time humans will ever be able to see a planetary core,” said principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton, director of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE). “Having the Psyche Mission selected for NASA’s Discovery Program will help us gain insights into the metal interior of all rocky planets in our solar system, including Earth.” 

Psyche, an asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, is made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal. As such, it offers a unique look into the violent collisions that created Earth and the other terrestrial planets.

The scientific goals of the Psyche mission are to understand the building blocks of planet formation and explore firsthand a wholly new and unexplored type of world. The mission team seeks to determine whether Psyche is a protoplanetary core, how old it is, whether it formed in similar ways to the Earth’s core, and what its surface is like.

“The knowledge this mission will create has the potential to affect our thinking about planetary science for generations to come,” ASU President Michael M. Crow said. “We are in a new era of exploration of our solar system with new public-private sector partnerships helping unlock new worlds of discovery, and ASU will be at the forefront of that research.” 



Psyche — a window into planetary cores

Every world explored so far by humans (except gas giant planets such as Jupiter or Saturn) has a surface of ice or rock or a mixture of the two, but their cores are thought to be metallic. These cores, however, lie far below rocky mantles and crusts and are considered unreachable in our lifetimes.

Psyche, an asteroid that appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of a protoplanet, one of the building blocks of the sun’s planetary system, may provide a window into those cores. The asteroid is most likely a survivor of violent space collisions, common when the solar system was forming.

Psyche follows an orbit in the outer part of the main asteroid belt, at an average distance from the sun of about 280 million miles, or three times farther from the sun than Earth. It is roughly the size of Massachusetts (about 130 miles in diameter) and dense (7,000 kg/m³). 

“Being selected to lead this ambitious mission to the all-metal asteroid Psyche is a major milestone that reflects ASU’s outstanding research capacity,” said Sethuraman Panchanathan, executive vice president and chief research and innovation officer at ASU. “It speaks to our innovative spirit and our world-class scientific expertise in space exploration.”

Mission instrument payload

The spacecraft's instrument payload will include magnetometers, multispectral imagers, a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, and a radio-science experiment.

The multispectral imager, which will be led by an ASU science team, will provide high-resolution images using filters to discriminate between Psyche's metallic and silicate constituents. It consists of a pair of identical cameras designed to acquire geologic, compositional and topographic data.

The gamma ray and neutron spectrometer will detect, measure and map Psyche's elemental composition. The instrument is mounted on a 7-foot (2-meter) boom to distance the sensors from background radiation created by energetic particles interacting with the spacecraft and to provide an unobstructed field of view. The science team for this instrument is based at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

The magnetometer, which is led by scientists at MIT and UCLA, is designed to detect and measure the remnant magnetic field of the asteroid. It’s composed of two identical high-sensitivity magnetic field sensors located at the middle and outer end of the boom.

The Psyche spacecraft will also use an X-band radio telecommunications system, led by scientists at MIT and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This instrument will measure Psyche's gravity field and, when combined with topography derived from onboard imagery, will provide information on the interior structure of the asteroid.

The Psyche mission team

In addition to Elkins-Tanton, ASU SESE scientists on the Psyche mission team include Jim Bell, deputy principal investigator and co-investigator, co-investigator Erik Asphaug, and co-investigator David Williams.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed by Caltech is the managing organization and will build the spacecraft with industry partner Space Systems Loral (SSL). JPL’s contribution to the Psyche mission team includes over 75 people, led by project manager Henry Stone, project scientist Carol Polanskey, project systems engineer David Oh and deputy project manager Bob Mase. SSL contribution to the Psyche mission team includes over 50 people led by SEP Chassis deputy program manager Peter Lord and SEP Chassis program manager Steve Scott.

Other co-investigators are David Bercovici (Yale University), Bruce Bills (JPL), Richard Binzel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), William Bottke (Southwest Research Institute — SwRI), Ralf Jaumann (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft — und Raumfahrt), Insoo Jun (JPL), David Lawrence (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory — APL), Simon Marchi (SwRI), Timothy McCoy (Smithsonian Institution), Ryan Park (JPL), Patrick Peplowski (APL), Thomas Prettyman, (Planetary Science Institute), Carol Raymond (JPL), Chris Russell (UCLA), Benjamin Weiss (MIT), Dan Wenkert (JPL), Mark Wieczorek (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris), and Maria Zuber (MIT).

https://sese.asu.edu/about/news/article/2196

[Star One]

We also get a bonus main belt asteroid flyby in 2025 with Lucy. (Donaldjohanson  - 52246)

Did he say that in extended mission Lucy could even fly by Psyche?

Yes, Levison said that one of the possible extended mission targets is Psyche.

The long durations of the missions, extending into the 2030s, are factored into NASA’s long-term budgeting, Green said. Both have options for extended missions, which could perhaps bring the two together at some point in the future. Levison said that an extended mission for Lucy could include additional flybys of Trojan and main belt asteroids, one of which, he said, is the asteroid Psyche.

“We should be able to do more at the end of the mission,” he said, “if NASA agrees.”

- See more at: http://spacenews.com/nasa-selects-two-asteroid-missions-for-discovery-program/#sthash.ZU20sABF.dpuf

[TheFallen]

So excited for these missions! Though I'm wondering, will Lucy be on a solar escape trajectory since it's a flyby mission towards an outer planet?

I reckon this mission won't last long once the spacecraft gets past Jupiter after completing its objectives (since it'll apparently be powered by solar arrays). But I'm intrigued at what the fate of this probe will be...assuming that it doesn't end up in a long ellliptical orbit around the Sun instead.

[hop]

So excited for these missions! Though I'm wondering, will Lucy be on a solar escape trajectory since it's a flyby mission towards an outer planet?

No, it's on a very long tour. See this image from http://www.swri.org/press/2017/nasa-lucy-mission-jupiter-trojan.htm

[TheFallen]

Thanks for the heads-up.

So Lucy will apparently wander along in a heliocentric orbit after its mission. That's cool.

[Svetoslav]

I was a bit emotional yesterday, so I couldn't clarify my thoughts. But...

Yes, there's no doubt that these two asteroids missions would be scientifically viable. It's a big deal to visit a metallic asteroid, or a Jupiter trojan asteroid. No doubt it will enrich human knowledge.

However, we must step outside science to realize that the decision of NASA is harmful concerning public engagement. The public just doesn't care about asteroids. A Venus mission on the other side would be both scientifically meaningful and would engage the public.

[K-P]

So excited for these missions! Though I'm wondering, will Lucy be on a solar escape trajectory since it's a flyby mission towards an outer planet?

No, it's on a very long tour. See this image from

I know neither of these missions will do, but still I would like to see some spacecraft in that region sometime in the future doing Pallas flyby at the mission extension...

That said, I am very glad Dawn was kept around Ceres and not going elsewhere.

[Star One]

I was a bit emotional yesterday, so I couldn't clarify my thoughts. But...

Yes, there's no doubt that these two asteroids missions would be scientifically viable. It's a big deal to visit a metallic asteroid, or a Jupiter trojan asteroid. No doubt it will enrich human knowledge.

However, we must step outside science to realize that the decision of NASA is harmful concerning public engagement. The public just doesn't care about asteroids. A Venus mission on the other side would be both scientifically meaningful and would engage the public.

The level of public engagement is as it should be utterly irrelevant to such a decision.

[redliox]

How to summarize the finale of the Discovery selection...

[Jim]

A Venus mission on the other side would be both scientifically meaningful and would engage the public.

Unsubstantiated.  A Venus mission would not.  There would be no images.

[ccdengr]

A Venus mission would not.  There would be no images.

There would probably be imaging of the cloud tops, and the surface is somewhat visible in the some bands in the infrared, but I agree with you that public interest in that kind of imaging is low.  I don't see any evidence that public interest in Venus in general is noticeably higher than it is for any other solar system body.