Near-Earth Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM) study
- Creators
- Brophy, John R.
- Muirhead, Brian
Abstract
The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) concept brings together the capabilities of the science, technology, and the human exploration communities on a grand challenge combining robotic and human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit. This paper addresses the key aspects of this concept and the options studied to assess its technical feasibility. Included are evaluations of the expected number of potential targets, their expected discovery rate, the necessity to adequately characterize candidate mission targets, the process to capture a non-cooperative asteroid in deep space, and the power and propulsion technology required for transportation back to the EarthMoon system. Viable options for spacecraft and mission designs are developed. Orbits for storing the retrieved asteroid that are stable for more than a hundred years, yet allow for human exploration and commercial utilization of a redirected asteroid, are identified. The study concludes that the key aspects of finding, capturing and redirecting an entire small, near-Earth asteroid to the Earth-Moon system by the first half of the next decade are technically feasible. The study was conducted from January 2013 through March 2013 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with Glenn Research Center (GRC), Johnson Space Center (JSC), Langley Research Center (LaRC), and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).
Additional Information
The research described in this paper was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The work described in this paper was performed by the team of people listed below. The study team gratefully acknowledges the programmatic guidance and support provided by the HQ steering committee: Michele Gates (NASA HQ) John Guidi (NASA HQ), Lindley Johnson (NASA HQ), and James Reuther (NASA HQ). The following people (in alphabetical order) made significant contributions to the work summarized in this paper and the authors gratefully acknowledge their substantial contributions to this paper. John Baker (JPL), J. (Bob) Balaram (JPL), James Baughman (JPL), Brian Bone (JPL), Laura Burke (GRC), Adam Butt (MSFC), Greg Carr (JPL), Daniel Cervantes (JPL), Steve Chesley (JPL), Paul Chodas (JPL), Tom Cressman (GRC), John Dankanich (MSFC), Eric Faykus (GRC), Robert Gershman (JPL), Havard Grip (JPL), David Gruel (JPL), Kurt Hack (GRC), Dan Herman (GRC), Mike Hicks (JPL), Heather Hinkel (JSC), Richard Hofer (JPL), Jeff Hojnicki (GRC), Robert Jedicke (U. of Hawaii), Melissa Jones (JPL), Rick Kelsch (GRC), Tom Kerslake (GRC), Gary Kinsella (JPL), Trudy Kortes (GRC), Tom Kraft (GRC), Try Lam (JPL), Damon Landau (JPL), Gregory Lantoine (JPL), Eddie Lau (JPL), Tim Lawrence (JSC), Darlene Lee (JPL), Joe Lewis (JPL), Kevin Makowski (KPM), Richard Manella (GRC), Michael Mangano (JPL), David Manzella (GRC), Dan Mazanek (LaRC), Dave McCurdy (GRC), Mark McDonald (KSC), Raymond (Gabe) Merrill (LaRC), Tom Moreno (JPL), Tim McElrath (JPL), Melissa McGuire (GRC), Michael Martini (GRC), David Myers (GRC), Steven Myint (JPL), Firouz Naderi (JPL), Barry Nakazono (JPL), Charles Niederhaus (GRC), Evelyn Orndoff (JSC), Shane Pootrakul (JPL), Humphrey (Hoppy) Price (JPL), A. Miguel San Martin (JPL), Jasen Raboin (JSC), Robert Scheidegger (GRC), Zeb Scoville (JSC), Lisa Shore (JSC), John Siamidis (GRC), Oleg Sindiy (JPL), Guru Singh (JPL), John (Steve) Snyder (JPL), Steve Stich (JSC), Nathan Strange (JPL), Andy Thomas (JSC-CB), Ben van Lear (GRC), Charles Wang (JPL), Sonny White (JSC), Brian Wilcox (JPL), Don Yeomans (JPL), Emma Young (JPL), Aline Zimmer (JPL).Attached Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 64681
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160223-132726655
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Created
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2016-02-23Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2019-10-03Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Keck Institute for Space Studies