Mars has been explored historically only by robotic crafts, but a crewed mission encompasses several new engineering challenges – high ballistic coefficient entry, hypersonic decelerators, guided entry for reaching intended destinations within acceptable margins for error in the landing ellipse, and payload mass are all critical factors for evaluation. A comprehensive EDL parametric analysis has been conducted in support of a high mass landing architecture by evaluating three types of vehicles −70° Sphere Cone, Ellipsled and SpaceX hybrid architecture called Red Dragon as potential candidate options for crewed entry vehicles. Aerocapture at the Martian orbit of about 400km and subsequent Entry-from-orbit scenarios were investigated at velocities of 6.75km/s and 4km/s respectively. A study on aerocapture corridor over a range of entry velocities (6–9km/s) suggests that a hypersonic L/D of 0.3 is sufficient for a Martian aerocapture. Parametric studies conducted by varying aeroshell diameters from 10m to 15m for several entry masses up to 150mt are summarized and results reveal that vehicles with entry masses in the range of about 40–80mt are capable of delivering cargo with a mass on the order of 5–20mt. For vehicles with an entry mass of 20mt to 80mt, probabilistic Monte Carlo analysis of 5000 cases for each vehicle were run to determine the final landing ellipse and to quantify the statistical uncertainties associated with the trajectory and attitude conditions during atmospheric entry. Strategies and current technological challenges for a human rated Entry, Descent, and Landing to the Martian surface are presented in this study.

A new concept study was initiated to examine the architecture needed to gradually develop an economical, evolvable and sustainable lunar infrastructure using a public/private partnerships approach. This approach would establish partnership agreements between NASA and industry teams to develop a lunar infrastructure system that would be mutually beneficial. This approach would also require NASA and its industry partners to share costs in the development phase and then transfer operation of these infrastructure services back to its industry owners in the execution phase. These infrastructure services may include but are not limited to the following: lunar cargo transportation, power stations, communication towers and satellites, autonomous rover operations, landing pads and resource extraction operations. The public/private partnerships approach used in this study leveraged best practices from NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program which introduced an innovative and economical approach for partnering with industry to develop commercial cargo services to the International Space Station. This program was planned together with the ISS Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts which was responsible for initiating commercial cargo delivery services to the ISS for the first time. The public/private partnerships approach undertaken in the COTS program proved to be very successful in dramatically reducing development costs for these ISS cargo delivery services as well as substantially reducing operational costs. To continue on this successful path towards installing economical infrastructure services for LEO and beyond, this new study, named Lunar COTS (Commercial Operations and Transport Services), was conducted to examine extending the NASA COTS model to cis-lunar space and the lunar surface. The goals of the Lunar COTS concept are to: 1) develop and demonstrate affordable and commercial cis-lunar and surface capabilities, such as lunar cargo delivery and surface power generation, in partnership with industry; 2) incentivize industry to establish economical and sustainable lunar infrastructure services to support NASA missions and initiate lunar commerce; and 3) encourage creation of new space markets for economic growth and benefit. A phased-development approach was also studied to allow for incremental development and demonstration of capabilities needed to build a lunar infrastructure. This paper will describe the Lunar COTS concept goals, objectives and approach for building an economical and sustainable lunar infrastructure. It will also describe the technical challenges and advantages of developing and operating each infrastructure element. It will also describe the potential benefits and progress that can be accomplished in the initial phase of this Lunar COTS approach. Finally, the paper will also look forward to the potential of a robust lunar industrialization environment and its potential effect on the next 50 years of space exploration.

Exotic optical fibers and glasses are the platform material for photonics applications, primarily due to their superior signal transmission (speed, low attenuation), with extending bandwidth deep into the infrared, exceeding that of silica fibers. Gravitational effects (convection sedimentation) have a direct impact on the phase diagram of these materials and influence melting properties, crystallization temperatures, and viscosity of the elemental mix during the manufacturing process. Such factors constitute limits to the yield, transmission quality, and strength and value of these fibers; they also constrain the range of applications. Manufacturing in a gravity-free environment such as the Earth's Orbit also helps with other aspects of the fabrication process (i.e., improved form factor of the manufacturing unit, sustainability). In this article, revolutionary developments in the field of photonics over the past decade merge with the paradigm shift in the privatization of government-owned capabilities supporting a more diverse infrastructure (parabolic, suborbital, orbital), reduced price, and increased frequency to access space and the microgravity environment. With the increased dependence on data (demand, bandwidth, efficiency), space and the microgravity environment provide opportunities for optimized performance of these exotic optical fibers and glasses underlying the development of enabling technologies to meet future data demand. Existing terrestrial markets (Internet, telecommunications, market transactions) and emerging space markets (onorbit satellite servicing, space manufacturing, space resources, space communications, etc.) seem to converge, and this innovative material processing opportunity of exotic optical fibers and glasses might just be that ''killer app'': technologically competitive, economically viable, and with the ability to close the business case.

The reduced gravity environment of space provides a unique opportunity to further our understanding of various materials phenomena involving the molten, fluidic and gaseous states as well as life science applications where, contrary to earlier beliefs, microgravity induces changes in single cells and simple organisms; not only in large organisms with a complex overall response to gravity (or lack thereof). The potential breadth of commercial opportunities in microgravity thus spans over many verticals of the private sector with applications ranging from fiber optics, high-resolution crystals, microencapsulation, 3D organs to perfume and color dyes. Overall, products manufactured in microgravity hold the promise to have key properties surpassing their best terrestrial counterparts. Commercialization, also known as taking a new technology to market, is a journey in itself where the business, economic, market and technological components must align to generate a successful outcome. A business perspective is very different than technology maturation. In order for a technology to be ready for commercialization, it must not only be mature, but it must also have a compelling business case, and the means to scale up production must be identified and practical. Creating a robust economy in Earths orbit (Fig 1) is especially challenging because of the complexity (high risks, lack of standardization) involved in predicting future growth. This complexity can easily overwhelm the fact that many of the products have an attractive touch of space which aids with branding and marketing.This paper reviews the types of added value that can be extracted from space, with an emphasis on the microgravity environment. In addition, lessons learned from past commercialization efforts will be reviewed. While past efforts have yielded some point successes, they have as a whole failed to precipitate a sustainable LEO based market

The reduced gravity environment of space provides a unique opportunity to further our understanding of various materials phenomena involving the molten, fluidic and gaseous states as well as life science applications where, contrary to earlier beliefs, microgravity induces changes in single cells and simple organisms; not only in large organisms with a complex overall response to gravity (or lack thereof). The potential breadth of commercial opportunities in microgravity thus spans over many verticals of the private sector with applications ranging from fiber optics, high-resolution crystals, microencapsulation, 3D organs to perfume and color dyes. Overall, products manufactured in microgravity hold the promise to have key properties surpassing their best terrestrial counterparts. Commercialization, also known as taking a new technology to market, is a journey in itself where the business, economic, market and technological components must align to generate a successful outcome. A business perspective is very different than technology maturation, which can be measured with the usual Technology Readiness Level (TRL) approach. In order for a technology to be ready for commercialization, it must not only be mature (high TRL), but it must also have a compelling business case, and the means to scale up production must be identified and practical. Creating a sustainable economy in an emerging market such as microgravity is especially challenging because of the complexity (high risks, lack of standardization) involved in predicting future growth. This complexity can easily overwhelm the fact that many of the products have an attractive touch of space which aids with branding and marketing.This paper builds upon the concept of the verticals of microgravity, capturing not only new lines of investigations but also promising killer apps originating from microgravity to discuss and define the notion of Economic Readiness Level (ERL). To advance in ERL, the technology itself may not necessarily need to mature at all, but the understanding of its economic potential does. Building upon ERL, a model that ultimately leads to the creation of pathways for infusion of private capital and a sustainable commercial microgravity LEO-Earth economy will be discussed.

New SpaceVol. 4, No. 1 Brief ReportsLunar Station: The Next Logical Step in Space DevelopmentRobert Bruce Pittman, Lynn D. Harper, Mark E. Newfield, and Daniel J. RaskyRobert Bruce PittmanSpace Portal, Wyle, Moffett Field, California.Search for more papers by this author, Lynn D. HarperSpace Portal, NASA Ames, Moffett Field, California.Search for more papers by this author, Mark E. NewfieldSpace Portal, NASA Ames, Moffett Field, California.Search for more papers by this author, and Daniel J. RaskySpace Portal, NASA Ames, Moffett Field, California.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:10 Mar 2016https://doi.org/10.1089/space.2015.0031AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byConceptual Navigation and Positioning Solution for the Upcoming Lunar Mining and Settlement Missions Based on the Earth’s Mining Experiences: Lunar Regional Navigation Transceiver System7 March 2023 | Minerals, Vol. 13, No. 3Water and microbial monitoring technologies towards the near future space explorationWater Research, Vol. 177A trip to the moon might constrain the Fermi ParadoxFutures, Vol. 106The Moon Base as a Commercial Hub27 December 2018The Multipurpose Lunar Base as a First-Line Biosphere Defense and as a Gateway to the Universe27 December 2018 Volume 4Issue 1Mar 2016 InformationCopyright 2016, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Robert Bruce Pittman, Lynn D. Harper, Mark E. Newfield, and Daniel J. Rasky.Lunar Station: The Next Logical Step in Space Development.New Space.Mar 2016.7-14.http://doi.org/10.1089/space.2015.0031Published in Volume: 4 Issue 1: March 10, 2016PDF download

High-mass planetary surface access is one of NASA’s technical challenges involving entry, descent, and landing (EDL). During the entry and descent phase, frictional interaction with the planetary atmosphere causes a heat build-up to occur on the spacecraft, which will rapidly destroy it if a heat shield is not used. However, the heat shield incurs a mass penalty because it must be launched from Earth with the spacecraft, thus consuming a lot of precious propellant. This NASA innovative advanced concept (NIAC) phase I project investigated an approach to provide heat shield protection to spacecraft after launch and prior to each EDL thus potentially realizing significant launch mass savings. Heat shields fabricated in situ can provide a thermal-protection system for spacecraft that routinely enter a planetary atmosphere. By fabricating the heat shield with space resources from materials available on moons and asteroids, it is possible to avoid launching the heat-shield mass from Earth. Regolith has extremely good insulating properties and the silicates it contains can be used in the fabrication and molding of thermal-protection materials. In this paper, we will report on the findings of the NIAC phase I study.

To support the goals of expanding our human presence and current economic sphere beyond LEO, a new plan was constructed for NASA to enter into partnerships with industry to foster and incentivize a new era of lunar industrialization. For NASA to finally be successful in achieving sustainable human exploration missions beyond LEO, lessons learned from our space history have shown that it is essential for current program planning to include affordable and economic development goals as well as address top national priorities to obtain much needed public support. In the last 58 years of NASA's existence, only Apollo's human exploration missions beyond LEO were successful since it was proclaimed to be a top national priority during the 1960's. However, the missions were not sustainable and ended abruptly in 1972 due to lack of funding and insufficient economic gain. Ever since Apollo, there have not been any human missions beyond LEO because none of the proposed program plans were economical or proclaimed a top national priority. The proposed plan outlines a new campaign of low-cost, commercial-enabled lunar COTS (Commercial Orbital Transfer Services) missions which is an update to the Lunar COTS plan previously described. The objectives of this new campaign of missions are to prospect for resources, determine the economic viability of extracting those resources and assess the value proposition of using these resources in future exploration architectures such as Mars. These missions would be accomplished in partnership with commercial industry using the wellproven COTS Program acquisition model. This model proved to be very beneficial to both NASA and its industry partners as NASA saved significantly in development and operational costs, as much as tenfold, while industry partners successfully expanded their market share and demonstrated substantial economic gain. Similar to COTS, the goals for this new initiative are 1) to develop and demonstrate cost-effective, cis-lunar commercial services, such as lunar transportation, lunar mining and lunar ISRU operations; 2) enable development of an affordable and economical exploration architecture for future missions to Mars and beyond; and 3) to incentivize the creation of new lunar markets through use of lunar resources for economic benefit to NASA, commercial industry and the international community. These cost-effective services would not only enable NASA to economically and sustainably achieve its human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond but it would also kickstart a new era of lunar industrialization. This paper will describe the goals, objectives and approach for implementing this new campaign of missions. It will also describe the potential benefits and progress that can be accomplished with these low-cost, Lunar COTS missions. Lastly, a preliminary economic analysis approach is proposed for understanding the cost and potential return on investment in the use of lunar resources to reach the goal of lunar industrialization and an expanded and sustainable human presence into cis-lunar space and beyond.

The NASA COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) Program was a very successful program that developed and demonstrated cost-effective development and acquisition of commercial cargo transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS). The COTS acquisition strategy utilized a newer model than normally accepted in traditional procurement practices. This new model used Space Act Agreements where NASA entered into partnerships with industry to jointly share cost, development and operational risks to demonstrate new capabilities for mutual benefit. This model proved to be very beneficial to both NASA and its industry partners as NASA saved significantly in development and operational costs while industry partners successfully expanded their market share of the global launch transportation business. The authors, who contributed to the development of the COTS model, would like to extend this model to a lunar commercial services program that will push development of technologies and capabilities that will serve a Mars architecture and lead to an economical and sustainable pathway to transporting humans to Mars. Over the past few decades, several architectures for the Moon and Mars have been proposed and studied but ultimately halted or not even started due to the projected costs significantly exceeding NASA's budgets. Therefore a new strategy is needed that will fit within NASA's projected budgets and takes advantage of the US commercial industry along with its creative and entrepreneurial attributes. The authors propose a new COTS-like program to enter into partnerships with industry to demonstrate cost-effective, cis-lunar commercial services, such as lunar transportation, lunar ISRU operations, and cis-lunar propellant depots that can enable an economical and sustainable Mars architecture. Similar to the original COTS program, the goals of the proposed program, being notionally referred to as Lunar Commercial Orbital Transfer Services (LCOTS) program will be to: 1) reduce development and operational costs by sharing costs with industry; 2) create new markets in cis-lunar space to further reduce operational costs; and 3) enable NASA to develop an affordable and economical exploration Mars architecture. The paper will describe a plan for a proposed LCOTS program, its potential impact to an eventual Mars architecture and its many benefits to NASA, commercial space industry and the US economy.

Microgravity based commercial opportunities are broad, with applications ranging from fiber optics, device-grade semiconductor crystals, space beads, new materials, cell micro encapsulation, 3D tissues and cell cultures, genetic and molecular changes of immune suppression, protein and virus crystal growth, perfume and hair care. To date, primarily the knowledge gained from observing and understanding new end states of systems unraveled in microgravity has been translated into unique technologies and business opportunities on Earth. In some instances existing light qualified hardware is immediately available for commercial RD for small scale in-space manufacturing. Overall products manufactured in microgravity have key properties usually surpassing the best terrestrial counterparts. The talk will address the potential benefits of microgravity research for a variety of terrestrial markets. Our findings originate from discussions with 100+ non-aerospace private companies among the high-tech Silicon Valley ecosystem, show that the opportunities and benefits of using the ISS are largely not considered by experts, primarily due to a lack of awareness of the breadth of terrestrial applications that have been enabled or enhanced by microgravity RD. Based on this dialogue, the concept of microgravity verticals is developed to translate the benefits of the microgravity environment into blue ocean business opportunities for various key US commercial sectors.

The International Space Station (ISS) is the product of the efforts of sixteen nations over the course of several decades. It is now complete, operational, and has been continuously occupied since November of 20001. Since then the ISS has been carrying out a wide variety of research and technology development experiments, and starting to produce some pleasantly startling results. The ISS has a mass of 420 metric tons, supports a crew of six with a yearly resupply requirement of around 30 metric tons, within a pressurized volume of 916 cubic meters, and a habitable volume of 388 cubic meters. Its solar arrays produce up to 84 kilowatts of power. In the course of developing the ISS, many lessons were learned and much valuable expertise was gained. Where do we go from here? The ISS offers an existence proof of the feasibility of sustained human occupation and operations in space over decades. It also demonstrates the ability of many countries to work collaboratively on a very complex and expensive project in space over an extended period of time to achieve a common goal. By harvesting best practices and lessons learned, the ISS can also serve as a useful model for exploring architectures for beyond low-­‐ earth-­‐orbit (LEO) space development. This paper will explore the concept and feasibility for a Lunar Station. The Station concept can be implemented by either putting the equivalent capability of the ISS down on the surface of the Moon, or by developing the required capabilities through a combination of delivered materials and equipment and in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Scenarios that leverage existing technologies and capabilities as well as capabilities that are under development and are expected to be available within the next 3-­5 years, will be examined. This paper will explore how best practices and expertise gained from developing and operating the ISS and other relevant programs can be applied to effectively developing Lunar Station.

he main objective behind the Reentry Breakup Recorder (REBR) design is to record reentry data of space hardware into the Earth’s atmosphere and its subsequent breakup due to aerodynamic heating and loads. This small autonomous device has survived, successfully recorded and transmitted reentry data for the three recent reentry flights on carrier ISS supply host vehicles HTV2 (March 30, 2011), HTV3 (September 14, 2012) and ATV3 (October 3, 2012) and is thus a flight tested harware. REBR enables propulsionless reentry and, although not designed to be recoverable, the recent flight data indicates that recovery may in fact be possible. The main purpose behind continuing to develop REBR remains the acquisition of scientific data with relevance to debris disintegration upon atmospheric reentry, to also inform International Space Station (ISS) end of life. However, a myriad of secondary uses emerge. From the new REBR based secondary application space the main candidates are: (1) platform for low cost entry systems testing and model architectures; (2) tailorability options for TPS and corresponding instrumentation; (3) near on-demand sample return from ISS; (4) an aircraft-like “black box” for space transportation vehicles, etc. The current paper aims to discuss the various possible emerging concepts, their assumptions and limitations, in increasing order of complexity. A feasibility analysis attempting to associate each concept to one of the areas in the new application space will be performed. The results of a preliminary analysis for two different vehicle configurations with a ballistic coefficient of 59.1 kg/m and 55.5 kg/m, several flight path angles and a suite of options for the heat shield materials will be presented.

In this paper we will discuss a new mass-efficient and innovative way of protecting high-mass spacecraft during planetary Entry, Descent & Landing (EDL). Heat shields fabricated in situ can provide a thermal-protection system (TPS) for spacecraft that routinely enter a planetary atmosphere. By fabricating the heat shield with space resources from regolith materials available on moons and asteroids, it is possible to avoid launching the heat-shield mass from Earth. Three regolith processing and manufacturing methods will be discussed: 1) oxygen & metal extraction ISRU processes produce glassy melts enriched in alumina and titania, processed to obtain variable density, high melting point and heat-resistance; 2) compression and sintering of the regolith yield low density materials; 3) in-situ derived high-temperature polymers created to bind regolith particles together, with a lower energy budget.

The International Lunar Research Park (ILRP) is being planned at the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) on the campus of the University of Hawai`i at Hilo to serve as a prototype for an eventual multinational research park on the Moon. The Park will be developed by many nations and private organizations to advance scientific discovery, K-12 and university education, technology innovation, commercial applications and public participation in space exploration. The ILRP will consist of four physical elements: (1) a base facility, (2) a robotic village, (3) a visitor/education center and (4) one or more field test sites. Programmatic elements will include research and development, education and public outreach. Funding will be pursued through a public/private consortium. When fully developed the Park will support a variety of activities, including spin-off of terrestrial applications, space commerce, testing and validation of new technologies, education, public engagement and the possibility of a permanent human presence beyond Low Earth Orbit. If it progresses as envisioned, the ILRP could become the largest peaceful, international endeavor in history.

The term polymer layered impregnated (SPLIT) denotes a type of ablative composite-material thermal- insulation tiles having engineered, spatially non-uniform compositions. The term secondary refers to the fact that each tile contains at least two polymer layers wherein endothermic reactions absorb considerable amounts of heat, thereby helping to prevent overheating of an underlying structure. These tiles were invented to afford lighter-weight alternatives to the reusable thermal-insulation materials heretofore variously used or considered for use in protecting the space shuttles and other spacecraft from intense atmospheric-entry heating.

NASA has committed to help fostering a vibrant US commercial space industry for public benefit, and to help achieve affordably and sustainable space exploration. One of NASA’s largest activities in this regard is the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Program (COTS) where NASA plans an investment of $500M over five years, starting in 2007. The goal of the COTS program is to provide commercial transportation demonstrations of cargo, and potentially crew, to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The intent is that following successful flight demonstrations, NASA will be able to compete contracts for cargo and potentially crew transport to and from ISS. Thereby achieving this service at a much lower cost than government transportation options, and allowing significant cost savings that can then be applied to the exploration program. COTS is managed out of NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) is providing direct support to JSC for the program execution, and also technical support to its commercial partners. Currently there are two funded partner organizations selected from a national COTS competition with over 20 respondents: SpaceX and Rocket-Plane/Kistler. Both of these companies are planning major flight demonstrations for 2008, and both companies plan ISS cargo transport capabilities by 2009-2010, with crew transport to follow. This paper discusses current events and activities important to the development of the emerging commercial space industry, including the establishment of the Space Portal at NASA Ames. The Space Portal was formed to facilitate access and support for emerging and nontraditional space companies interested in working with NASA. Personnel from the Space Portal help provide the strategic and programmatic foundation for the COTS program, and currently are engaged with personnel from JSC in promoting export of the COTS approach to other program areas at NASA. Obstacles and opportunities identified for the emerging commercial space industry are discussed, as well as opportunities for exporting the COTS approach to other NASA program areas. The paper concludes with a brief historical perspective on similarities of the current emerging space industry with the emerging aviation industry a century ago. Obstacles for Space Use Figure 1 shows a principle challenge for the US space industry – the number of launches performed has declined considerably since the early years of the space program in the 1960’s and 70’s, and at this point there are more US based space companies vying business then there are launches. What has brought this about? First a number of obstacles have combined to limit the use of space including: 1) Failure of the Space Shuttle to make space access affordable and routine 2) NASA efforts to develop launch systems to replace Shuttle (e.g., NASP, RLV, X-33, X34, X-37, X-38, Gen 1-3, SLI, OSP) have constrained funds for space payloads, dampening demand 3) Business collapse of ambitious low-Earth orbiting satellite constellations in the late 1990’s (Iridium, Global-Star) seriously limited commercial investment AIAA SPACE 2007 Conference & Exposition 18 20 September 2007, Long Beach, California AIAA 2007-6154 This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.