I wonder which launchers will be selected to launch them!
SwRI to lead NASA’s Lucy mission to Jupiter’s TrojansSmall, primitive worlds orbiting near Jupiter to provide clues about origins of the solar systemBoulder, 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.http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2017/nasa-lucy-mission-jupiter-trojan.htm
ASU to lead NASA space exploration mission for 1st timeBy Karin Valentine — January 4, 2017Arizona 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. https://sese.asu.edu/about/news/article/2196
I recorded the last half hour of the briefing (i.e., I missed about 15 minutes):
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.
Psyche, NASA's Discovery Mission to a unique metal asteroid, has been moved up one year with launch in the summer of 2022, and with a planned arrival at the main belt asteroid in 2026 -- four years earlier than the original timeline."We challenged the mission design team to explore if an earlier launch date could provide a more efficient trajectory to the asteroid Psyche, and they came through in a big way," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This will enable us to fulfill our science objectives sooner and at a reduced cost."The Discovery program announcement of opportunity had directed teams to propose missions for launch in either 2021 or 2023. The Lucy mission was selected for the first launch opportunity in 2021, and Psyche was to follow in 2023. Shortly after selection in January, NASA gave the direction to the Psyche team to research earlier opportunities."The biggest advantage is the excellent trajectory, which gets us there about twice as fast and is more cost effective," said Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. "We are all extremely excited that NASA was able to accommodate this earlier launch date. The world will see this amazing metal world so much sooner."The revised trajectory is more efficient, as it eliminates the need for an Earth gravity assist, which ultimately shortens the cruise time. In addition, the new trajectory stays farther from the sun, reducing the amount of heat protection needed for the spacecraft. The trajectory will still include a Mars gravity assist in 2023."The change in plans is a great boost for the team and the mission," said Psyche Project Manager Henry Stone at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Our mission design team did a fantastic job coming up with this ideal launch opportunity."The Psyche spacecraft is being built by Space Systems Loral (SSL), Palo Alto, California. In order to support the new mission trajectory, SSL redesigned the solar array system from a four-panel array in a straight row on either side of the spacecraft to a more powerful five-panel x-shaped design, commonly used for missions requiring more capability. Much like a sports car, by combining a relatively small spacecraft body with a very high-power solar array design, the Psyche spacecraft will speed to its destination at a faster pace than is typical for a larger spacecraft."By increasing the size of the solar arrays, the spacecraft will have the power it needs to support the higher velocity requirements of the updated mission," said SSL Psyche Program Manager Steve Scott.
Would not surprise me if this doesn't end up on a Falcon 9 as it seems an ideal mission for Space X to bid for.
Quote from: Star One on 05/24/2017 05:14 pmWould not surprise me if this doesn't end up on a Falcon 9 as it seems an ideal mission for Space X to bid for.No more than an Atlas V
“We are able to save about $100 million over the life cycle of the mission by launching in 2022 instead of 2023,” Elkins-Tanton wrote in an email to Spaceflight Now. “The majority of the savings comes from the shorter cruise enabled by the earlier launch date. We will arrive at Psyche in 2026 rather than 2030 because this is so much more efficient.”Engineers at Space Systems/Loral, the manufacturer of the Psyche spacecraft, will add larger solar arrays to the probe to generate more electricity. The upsized solar panels are needed to power the craft’s electric ion thrusters to reach Psyche sooner.Instead of a four-panel array on each side of the spacecraft, Psyche will have a more powerful five-panel X-shaped wing design, according to NASA.“The cost savings are significant from a one year reduction in the development time and about a three-year reduction in cruise operations,” Stone wrote in an email. “The larger solar panels add mass, but total mass is still within the launch vehicle’s capabilities.”NASA has not selected a launcher for Psyche, but United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster will compete for the mission’s launch contract.
Quote from: Jim on 05/26/2017 01:00 pmQuote from: Star One on 05/24/2017 05:14 pmWould not surprise me if this doesn't end up on a Falcon 9 as it seems an ideal mission for Space X to bid for.No more than an Atlas VBoth are capable. Falcon costs less but Atlas has more reliability history. I expect at least 1 of this pair to fly on the Atlas, if not both. The history of reliability is not easily discounted and plays well against cost, especially for one-of-a kind missions like these.
It occurs to me that the spacecraft being sent to 13 Psyche would probably need to be seriously hardened. A mass of ferrous metals of that size would probably have a huge induced magnetic field and electrostatic charge from its motion through the field lines of the Sun's magnetosphere. There could even be a synchrotron radiation field close to the surface!
I thought that was the whole reason for certification. If they wanted higher reliability wouldn't they require a Category 3 certification excluding Falcon from the start?
Seriously, half the posts on this topic are about what rocket might launch it five years from now. Don't you guys argue that issue enough on just about every other thread on this site?
Psyche will be carry laser communications, RF is still primary comms while laser is a test. If it works the orbiter will be able to send huge amounts of data.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 05/27/2017 10:21 amPsyche will be carry laser communications, RF is still primary comms while laser is a test. If it works the orbiter will be able to send huge amounts of data. Send it to what? Laser without an orbital relay has always had cloud cover making scheduling iffy.
They're going to have problems with that system on TDRS. Optical has proven tougher than anybody expected. There were proposals for laser comm in the mid-1960s, believe it or not, and active development in the early 1980s.I think this is a vital technology for planetary exploration, but it's going to be difficult and expensive.I'm scratching my brain at the moment, but in the past year or so I saw a semi-detailed history article on the development of optical comm. Maybe somebody else has seen that and can link to it.
Just about all of the difficulties in that study seem to be ground stations having a good line of sight, which are eliminated by the TDRS. No unplanned attenuation, clouds, layers or anything else the atmosphere has to offer. And little risk at the Mars end since simulating the distance is extremely simple without all the uncertain variables you have with ground stations.
As NASA looks to explore deeper into our solar system, one of the key areas of interest is studying worlds that can help researchers better understand our solar system and the universe around us. One of the next destinations in this knowledge-gathering campaign is a rare world called Psyche, located in the asteroid belt.Psyche is different from millions of other asteroids because it appears to have an exposed nickel-iron surface. Researchers at Arizona State University, Tempe, in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, believe the asteroid could actually be the leftover core of an early planet. And, since we can't directly explore any planet's core, including our own, Psyche offers a rare look into the violent history of our solar system."Psyche is a unique body because it is, by far, the largest metal asteroid out there; it's about the size of Massachusetts," said David Oh, the mission's lead project systems engineer at JPL. "By exploring Psyche, we'll learn about the formation of the planets, how planetary cores are formed and, just as important, we'll be exploring a new type of world. We've looked at worlds made of rock, ice and of gas, but we've never had an opportunity to look at a metal world, so this is brand new exploration in the classic style of NASA."But getting to Psyche won't be easy. It requires a cutting-edge propulsion system with exceptional performance, which is also safe, reliable and cost-effective. That's why the mission team has turned to NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, which has been advancing solar electric propulsion (SEP) for decades.SEP thrusters use inert gases, like xenon, which are then energized by the electric power generated from onboard solar arrays to provide gentle, non-stop thrust."For deep space missions, the type and amount of fuel required to propel a spacecraft is an important factor for mission planners," said Carol Tolbert, project manager for Psyche thruster testing at NASA Glenn. "A SEP system, like the one used for this mission, operates more efficiently than a conventional chemical propulsion system, which would be impractical for this type of mission."The reduced fuel mass allows the mission to enter orbit around Psyche and provides additional space for all of the mission's scientific payload. Psyche's payload includes a multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray spectrometer. These instruments will help the science team better understand the asteroid's origin, composition and history.Additional benefits of SEP are flexibility and robustness in the flight plan, which allow the spacecraft to arrive at Psyche much faster and more efficiently than it could using conventional propulsion.For this mission, the spacecraft, which will be built jointly by JPL and Space Systems Loral (SSL), will use the SPT-140 Hall effect thruster. Because Psyche is three times farther away from the Sun than Earth, flying there required a unique test of the low-power operation of the thruster in the very low pressures that will be encountered in space.The mission team called upon NASA Glenn, and its space power and propulsion expertise, to put the mission's thruster through its paces at the center's Electric Propulsion Laboratory."This mission will be the first to use a Hall effect thruster system beyond lunar orbit, so the tests here at Glenn, which had never been conducted before, were needed to ensure the thruster could perform and operate as expected in the deep space environment," said Tolbert.The facility at NASA Glenn has been a premier destination for electric propulsion and power system testing for over 40 years and features a number of space environment chambers, which simulate the vacuum and temperatures of space."This was very important to the mission because we want to test-like-we-fly and fly-like-we-test," said Oh. "Glenn has a world-class facility that allowed us to go to very low pressures to simulate the environment the spacecraft will operate in and better understand how our thrusters will perform around Psyche."At first glance, the results confirm our predictions regarding how the thruster will perform, and it looks like everything is working as expected. But, we will continue to refine our models by doing more analysis."As the team works toward an anticipated August 2022 launch, they will use the data collected at NASA Glenn to update their thruster modeling and incorporate it into mission trajectories.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 the core of an early planet, how old it is, whether it formed in similar ways to Earth's core, and what its surface is like. For more information about NASA's Psyche mission, visit:
A spacecraft destined to explore a unique asteroid will also test new communication hardware that uses lasers instead of radio waves.The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) package aboard NASA's Psyche mission utilizes photons -- the fundamental particle of visible light -- to transmit more data in a given amount of time. The DSOC goal is to increase spacecraft communications performance and efficiency by 10 to 100 times over conventional means, all without increasing the mission burden in mass, volume, power and/or spectrum.Tapping the advantages offered by laser communications is expected to revolutionize future space endeavors - a major objective of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).The DSOC project is developing key technologies that are being integrated into a deep space-worthy Flight Laser Transceiver (FLT), high-tech work that will advance this mode of communications to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. Reaching a TRL 6 level equates to having technology that is a fully functional prototype or representational model.As a "game changing" technology demonstration, DSOC is exactly that. NASA STMD's Game Changing Development Program funded the technology development phase of DSOC. The flight demonstration is jointly funded by STMD, the Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM) Program and NASA/ HEOMD/Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN).
Quote from: Blackstar on 05/26/2017 09:33 pmSeriously, half the posts on this topic are about what rocket might launch it five years from now. Don't you guys argue that issue enough on just about every other thread on this site?Crazy isn't it? Personally, I am really excited about Psyche. I think it as the same poential for the unexpected as Rosetta.
The project’s planned launch window is OctoberNovember2021. Under that planned launch date, Lucy isexpected to have its rehearsal flyby–a main belt asteroidencounter that will allow the project to test instruments—in2025 and then fly by Trojan asteroids over the course ofthe next 8 years. If the project misses that launch date,another launch window opens in 2022.LaunchIn coordination with NASA Launch Services at KennedySpace Center, project officials identified the Atlas V andFalcon Heavy as vehicles that meet mission requirements.However, as of January 2018, the Falcon Heavy had notflown, so launch environment data was not yet available tothe project. Project officials are tracking a risk that it couldbe necessary to rework hardware due to the Falcon Heavylaunch environment. However, the project has assessedthe cost impact of this scenario should the Falcon Heavy beselected. Officials said they do not expect NASA to selecta launch vehicle prior to the project’s planned September2018 preliminary design review, the point at which projectsprefer to select a launch vehicle. Until then, the projectis designing to a mix of the two potential launch vehicles’requirements.
In September 2017, the project reported a risk that it mayhave to conduct integration and testing off-site becauseit is planning to share a clean room with the EuropaClipper project, which has stricter planetary protectionand contamination control requirements. These stricterrequirements have a cost impact and the project isresearching options to partition the clean room withoutjeopardizing the Europa Clipper project’s requirements. Theproject is also researching options to conduct integrationand testing off-site, such as using the contractor’s facilities.
What I found most interesting about the report for these two missions were the estimated full life cycle costs. These costs include the widely reported principal investigator's budget for the spacecraft, instruments, and scientific analysis (I believe these were ~$450M for the selection of these two missions; don't have all my files available right now to check). These costs also include additional NASA costs such as overview, launch, and operations. As GAO reports the costs, they also include an inflation factor.So drum roll, the full costs of these missions are currently projected to be:Lucy $914-984MPsyche $907-957MAn important caveat is that both missions are still in formulation and don't yet have a committed cost estimate, so the numbers above are just best estimates while the implementation details are still being worked.However, these numbers are a good sized leap from the initial life cycle costs for the InSight Discovery mission, which I were $675M before the two year launch delay raised the final estimate to $829M per the GAO report.Inflation is a bitch. The next Decadal Survey (due to be completed in 2022) will be looking at a number of missions to try to fit within projected NASA budgets. I'm expecting sticker shock on how much some of those missions are likely to be estimated to cost.
When calculating this stuff, you really need to make sure you list all of the things that are included so that people know what is being counted. Phase E (science evaluation) costs were taken out of Discovery a number of years ago because they were hurting outer planets missions that took longer to reach their targets to start operating.I'll probably be running the next planetary DS and we're already working on how to do cost estimating for the next decadals (astro is planned to be the next one up).But let me point out something that gets forgotten: cost is not the only factor or even the primary factor. What matters is what you do. If it costs more, but is still worth doing, then that's the important thing. People tend to gravitate to the costs issue because they (think) they understand it, whereas the science is abstract and complex and amorphous.
Quote from: Blackstar on 05/02/2018 04:45 pmWhen calculating this stuff, you really need to make sure you list all of the things that are included so that people know what is being counted. Phase E (science evaluation) costs were taken out of Discovery a number of years ago because they were hurting outer planets missions that took longer to reach their targets to start operating.I'll probably be running the next planetary DS and we're already working on how to do cost estimating for the next decadals (astro is planned to be the next one up).But let me point out something that gets forgotten: cost is not the only factor or even the primary factor. What matters is what you do. If it costs more, but is still worth doing, then that's the important thing. People tend to gravitate to the costs issue because they (think) they understand it, whereas the science is abstract and complex and amorphous.The next Decadal will get to chose from a very rich set of possible missions. I look forward to seeing how the team optimizes the science from within the range of expected budgets.The most recent planetary budgets have been very good. However, they look less good when you take into account the effects of inflation. That could be a real problem if the budget is held flat in real dollars as the administration's most recent budget request projects.
