NASA Selects Draper to Fly Research to Far Side of Moon - UNIVERSE

An illustration of Draper’s SERIES-2 lunar lander, which will deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon for NASA in 2025. Credits: Draper

NASA has awarded Draper of Cambridge, Massachusetts a contract to deliver Artemis science investigations to the Moon in 2025. The commercial delivery is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative under Artemis.

Draper will receive $73 million for the contract, and is responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, delivery from Earth to the surface of the Moon, and payload operations. This award is the eighth surface delivery task award issued to a CLPS vendor.

“This lunar surface delivery to a geographic region on the Moon that is not visible from Earth will allow science to be conducted at a location of interest but far from the first Artemis human landing missions,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Understanding geophysical activity on the far side of the Moon will give us a deeper understanding of our solar system and provide information to help us prepare for Artemis astronaut missions to the lunar surface.”

The experiments riding on Draper’s SERIES-2 lander are headed to Schrödinger Basin, a large lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon, close to the lunar South Pole. This interesting geological site is about 200 miles in diameter. The outer ring of the basin is made up of impact melt meteorites and the inner ring is known for its smooth floor deposits that may be a combination of both impact melt and volcanic material.

“The payload delivery location is a first for us. Operations from the far side of the Moon will help improve how we track activities from this location to address scientific goals – all while we gather data from the payloads,” said Chris Culbert, CLPS program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The vendor-provided services will prepare for future, more complex lunar surface operations.”

Schrödinger Basin is one of the youngest impact basins on the lunar surface whose impact uplifted deep crust and upper mantle of the Moon in its peak ring. Later, the inner basin was the site of a large volcanic eruption. Scientists hope to study the thermal and geophysical properties of the lunar interior as well as electric and magnetic properties in a landing location shielded from Earth’s electromagnetic fields.

• Two of the three investigations selected for this flight are part of NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) call for proposals. Draper will deliver the three investigations that will collectively weigh about 209 pounds (95 kilograms) in mass and include the Farside Seismic Suite (FSS), which aims to return NASA’s first lunar seismic data from the far side of the Moon. This new data could help scientists better understand tectonic activity on this region of the Moon, reveal how often the lunar far side is impacted by small meteorites, and provide new information on the internal structure of the Moon. The instrument consists of the two most sensitive seismometers ever built for spaceflight. FSS is one of two PRISM selections. It is funded through NASA in collaboration with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) – the French Space Agency – and is led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

• The Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials Suite (LITMS), also a PRISM selection, is a suite of two instruments: the Lunar Instrumentation for Thermal Exploration with Rapidity, a subsurface heat-flow probe and pneumatic drill; and the Lunar Telluric Currents, an electric field instrument. This payload suite aims to investigate the heat flow and subsurface electrical conductivity structure of the lunar interior in Schrödinger Basin. The combination of these measurements is a way to resolve thermal and compositional structure of the surface of the Moon. LITMS is funded by NASA and is led by the Southwest Research Institute.

• The Lunar Surface ElectroMagnetics Experiment (LuSEE), which will make comprehensive measurements of electromagnetic phenomena on the surface of the Moon. LuSEE uses DC electric and magnetic field measurements to study the conditions that control the electrostatic potential of the lunar surface, which, in turn, plays a controlling role in dust transport. LuSEE also uses plasma wave measurements to characterize the lunar ionosphere and the interaction of the solar wind and magnetospheric plasma with the lunar surface and crustal magnetic fields. In addition, this payload will make sensitive radio frequency measurements to measure solar and planetary radio emissions. LuSEE is funded by NASA in collaboration with CNES, and is led by University of California, Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory.

Multiple commercial deliveries continue to be part of NASA’s plans at the Moon. Future payloads delivered with CLPS could include more science experiments, including technology demonstrations that support for the agency’s Artemis missions. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term, sustainable lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone for future astronaut missions to Mars. Artemis I is scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 29,2022 with a subsequent test flight with crew scheduled to occur in 2024 in advance of NASA sending humans to the surface of the Moon no earlier than 2025.

Learn more about CLPS at: https://www.nasa.gov/clps -end-

Source: NASA Selects Draper to Fly Research to Far Side of Moon | NASA

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NASA Will Inspire World When It Returns Mars Samples to Earth in 2033

This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples collected from the Mars surface by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA has finished the system requirements review for its Mars Sample Return Program, which is nearing completion of the conceptual design phase. During this phase, the program team evaluated and refined the architecture to return the scientifically selected samples, which are currently in the collection process by NASA’s Perseverance rover in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater.

The architecture for the campaign, which includes contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA), is expected to reduce the complexity of future missions and increase probability of success.

“The conceptual design phase is when every facet of a mission plan gets put under a microscope,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “There are some significant and advantageous changes to the plan, which can be directly attributed to Perseverance’s recent successes at Jezero and the amazing performance of our Mars helicopter.”

This advanced mission architecture takes into consideration a recently updated analysis of Perseverance’s expected longevity. Perseverance will be the primary means of transporting samples to NASA’s Sample Retrieval Lander carrying the Mars Ascent Vehicle and ESA’s Sample Transfer Arm.

As such, the Mars Sample Return campaign will no longer include the Sample Fetch Rover or its associated second lander. The Sample Retrieval Lander will include two sample recovery helicopters, based on the design of the Ingenuity helicopter, which has performed 29 flights at Mars and survived over a year beyond its original planned lifetime. The helicopters will provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples cached on the surface of Mars.

The ESA Earth Return Orbiter and its NASA-provided Capture, Containment, and Return System remain vital elements of the program architecture.

With planned launch dates for the Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander in fall 2027 and summer 2028, respectively, the samples are expected to arrive on Earth in 2033.

With its architecture solidified during this conceptual design phase, the program is expected to move into its preliminary design phase this October. In this phase, expected to last about 12 months, the program will complete technology development and create engineering prototypes of the major mission components.

This refined concept for the Mars Sample Return campaign was presented to the delegates from the 22 participating states of Europe’s space exploration program, Terrae Novae, in May. At their next meeting in September, the states will consider the discontinuation of the development of the Sample Fetch Rover.

“ESA is continuing at full speed the development of both the Earth Return Orbiter that will make the historic round-trip from Earth to Mars and back again; and the Sample Transfer Arm that will robotically place the sample tubes aboard the Orbiting Sample Container before its launch from the surface of the Red Planet,” said David Parker, ESA director of Human and Robotic Exploration.

The respective contributions to the campaign are contingent upon available funding from the U.S. and ESA participating states. More formalized agreements between the two agencies will be established in the next year.

 “Working together on historic endeavors like Mars Sample Return not only provides invaluable data about our place in the universe but brings us closer together right here on Earth,” said Zurbuchen.

The first step in the Mars Sample Return Campaign is already in progress. Since it landed at Jezero Crater Feb. 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover has collected 11 scientifically-compelling rock core samples and one atmospheric sample.

Bringing Mars samples to Earth would allow scientists across the world to examine the specimens using sophisticated instruments too large and too complex to send to Mars and would enable future generations to study them. Curating the samples on Earth would also allow the science community to test new theories and models as they are developed, much as the Apollo samples returned from the Moon have done for decades. This strategic NASA and ESA partnership will fulfill a solar system exploration goal, a high priority since the 1970s and in the last three National Academy of Sciences Planetary Science Decadal Surveys.

Learn more about the Mars Sample Return Program: https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/

Source: NASA Will Inspire World When It Returns Mars Samples to Earth in 2033 | NASA

Low-Speed Wind Tunnel Test Provides Important Data - AERONAUTICS/NASA

A model of the X-59 forebody is shown in the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ wind tunnel in Palmdale, California, in February of 2022. Credits: Lockheed Martin

Before NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft can take to the skies, plenty of testing needs to happen to ensure a safe first flight. One part of this safety check is to analyze data collected for the X-59’s flight control system through low-speed wind tunnel tests.

The X-59 is central to NASA’s Quesst mission to expand supersonic flight and provide regulators with data to help change existing national and international aviation rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land. The aircraft is designed to produce a gentle thump instead of a sonic boom.

Recently, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, completed low-speed wind tunnel tests of a scale model of the X-59’s forebody. The tests provided measurements of how wind flows around the aircraft nose and confirmed computer predictions made using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software tools. The data will be fed into the aircraft flight control system and will allow the pilot to know the altitude, speed and angle that the aircraft is flying at in the sky.

“These tests help with developing the flight control system,” said Jeff Flamm, NASA's aerodynamics and performance lead on Quesst. “This flight data is obtained from many instruments on the aircraft including air data probes, GPS and engine instrumentation. These wind tunnel tests allow us to verify our CFD predictions, which let us know our flight control system is safe to fly.”

The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works low-speed wind tunnel produces air moving at the same speed that the real, full-scale X-59 will experience during takeoff and landing. However, most wind tunnels are too small to fit the nearly 100-foot-long aircraft. Therefore, it was more practical for Lockheed-Martin to build an 11.5% scale model of the X-59’s forebody to simulate the airflow around the plane’s nose.

A technician works on the X-59 model during testing in the low-speed wind tunnel, in February of 2022. Credits: Lockheed Martin

Engineers placed small wind vanes on the X-59 model to measure the angle of the wind at the precise location of the air data instruments on the full-scale aircraft. The testing compared the data collected from the wind tunnel with computer model predictions to see how well they matched.

“The recent low-speed wind tunnel tests were a success,” Flamm said. “The results of the tests matched NASA and Lockheed Martin’s earlier computer predictions. There were no surprises that arose.”

Quesst Mission Continues

Supersonic flight occurs when an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound. This creates a shockwave that can make a very loud sonic boom, which can startle those on the ground. The X-59 is shaped to address that problem, generating a thump instead.

The aircraft design is important, but Quesst also has other crucial mission components. To provide regulators with data for changing aviation rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land, NASA plans to fly the X-59 over a number of U.S. communities and survey populations on the acceptability of the sound they hear. The agency will share this information with national and international regulators.

Work on the X-59 continues, and the Quesst team plans for a first flight of the aircraft at the end of 2022.

To learn more about the Quesst mission and the continued progress of the X-59, visit www.nasa.gov/Quesst

Kristen Hatfield

Source: Low-Speed Wind Tunnel Test Provides Important Data | NASA

 

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