The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Persopolis, Iran (image credit: Oshin D. Zakarian/TWAN).
Citizen scientists have discovered planets beyond our Solar System and established morphological classifications for thousands of galaxies (e.g., the Planet Hunters and Galaxy Zoo projects). At an upcoming meeting of planetary scientists, Hamed Pourkhorsandi from the University of Tehran will present his efforts to mobilize citizens to identify impact craters throughout Persia. Pourkhorsandi said he is recruiting volunteers to identify craters using Google Earth, while continuing to seek sightings of fireballs cited in ancient books and among rural folk. Discovering impact craters is an important endeavour, since it helps astronomers estimate how many asteroids of a particular size strike Earth over a given time (i.e., the impact frequency). Indeed, that is especially relevant in light of the recent meteor explosion over Russia this past February (see the UT article here), which hints at the potentially destructive nature of such occurrences.
Satellite images have facilitated the detection of impact sites such as the Kamil and Puka craters, which were identified by V. de Michele and D. Hamacher using Google Earth, respectively (see the UT article here). Pourkhorsandi noted that, “Free access to satellite images has led to the investigation of earth’s surface by specialists and nonspecialists, attempts that have led to the discovery of new impact craters around the globe. [Yet] few researches on this topic have been done in the Middle East.” Incidentally, citizens are likewise being recruited to classify craters and features on other bodies in the Solar System (e.g., the Moon Zoo project).
The Kamil impact crater in Egypt was discovered by V. de Michele using Google Earth, and H. Pourkhorsandi is recruiting volunteers to discover such structures throughout Persia following a similar approach (image credit: L. Folco).
In his paper, Pourkhorsandi describes examples of two targets investigated thus far: “1. a circular structure with a diameter of 200 m (33°21’57”N 58°14’24”E). [However,] there is no sign of … meteoritic fragments in the region that are primary diagnostic indicators for small size impact craters.” The second target is tied to an old tale, and note that the Puka crater in Australia was identified by following-up on an old Aboriginal story. However, Pourkhorsandi states that a field study of the second target (28°24’52” N 60°34’44” E) revealed that the crater is not associated with an impactor from space.
“Beside these structures, field studies on other craters in Persia are in progress, the outcomes of which will be announced in the near future,” said Pourkhorsandi.
Pourkhorsandi underscores that numerous meteorites have been found in desert regions throughout the world, yet scant attention has been given to Persian deserts (e.g., the Lut desert). The Lut desert in Persia extends over several thousand square kilometres and is one of the hottest places on Earth (featuring land surface temperatures upwards of 70 degrees Celsius). Pourkhorsandi noted that in 2005 a ‘curious stone’ was recovered in the Lut desert and subsequent work revealed its extraterrestrial origin.
He went on to remark that, “Three recent short field trips to the central Lut desert led to the collection of several meteoritic fragments, which points to large concentrations of meteoritic materials in the area.” Some of those fragments are shown in the figure below, and the broader region is likely a pertinent place for citizen scientists to continue the hunt for impact craters in Persia.
Pourkhorsandi concluded by telling the Universe Today, “In the future we aim to expand our efforts with the help of additional people, and will direct individuals to scan other regions of the planet. Simultaneously, we have commenced a comprehensive analysis of meteorites in the Lut desert with fellow European scientists.”
H chondrite fragments found in the Lut desert (in Persia) are argued to be extraterrestrial in origin (image credit: Fig. 3 in Pourkhorsandi 2013/LPI).
NASA Orion spacecraft blasts off atop 1st Space Launch System rocket in 2017 - attached to European provided service module – on an enhanced m mission to Deep Space where an asteroid could be relocated as early as 2021. Credit: NASA
NASA Orion spacecraft blasts off atop 1st Space Launch System rocket in 2017 – attached to European provided service module – on an ambitious mission to explore Deep Space some 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, where an asteroid could be relocated as early as 2021. Credit: NASA Story updated with further details[/caption]
NASA managers have announced a bold new plan to significantly alter and upgrade the goals and complexity of the 1st mission of the integrated Orion/Space Launch System (SLS) human exploration architecture – planned for blastoff in late 2017.
The ambitious first flight, called Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), would be targeted to send an unpiloted Orion spacecraft to a point more than 40,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) beyond the Moon as a forerunner supporting NASA’s new Asteroid Redirect Initiative – recently approved by the Obama Administration.
The EM-1 flight will now serve as an elaborate harbinger to NASA’s likewise enhanced EM-2 mission, which would dispatch a crew of astronauts for up close investigation of a small Near Earth Asteroid relocated to the Moon’s vicinity.
Orion crew module separates from Space Launch System (SLS) upper stage. Credit: NASA
Until recently NASA’s plan had been to launch the first crewed Orion atop the 2nd SLS rocket in 2021 to a high orbit around the moon on the EM-2 mission, said NASA Associate Administrator Lori Garver in an prior interview with me at the Kennedy Space Center.
Concept of NASA spacecraft with Asteroid capture mechanism deployed to redirect a small space rock to a stable lunar orbit for later study by astronauts aboard Orion crew capsule. Credit: NASA.
The enhanced EM-1 flight would involve launching an unmanned Orion, fully integrated with the Block 1 SLS to a Deep Retrograde Orbit (DRO) near the moon, a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where an asteroid could be moved to as early as 2021.
Orion’s mission duration would be nearly tripled to 25 days from the original 10 days.
“The EM-1 mission with include approximately nine days outbound, three to six days in deep retrograde orbit and nine days back,” Brandi Dean, NASA Johnson Space Center spokeswoman told Universe Today exclusively.
The proposed much more technologically difficult EM-1 mission would allow for an exceptionally more vigorous work out and evaluation of the design of all flight systems for both Orion and SLS before risking a flight with humans aboard.
Asteroid Capture in Progress
A slew of additional thruster firings would exercise the engines to change orbital parameters outbound, around the moon and inbound for reentry.
The current Deep Retrograde Orbit (DRO) plan includes several thruster firings from the Orion service module, including a powered lunar flyby, an insertion at DRO, an extraction maneuver from the DRO and a powered flyby on return to Earth.
Orion would be outfitted with sensors to collect a wide variety of measurements to evaluate its operation in the harsh space environment.
“EM-1 will have a compliment of both operational flight instrumentation and development flight instrumentation. This instrumentation suite gives us the ability to measure many attributes of system functionality and performance, including thermal, stress, displacement, acceleration, pressure and radiation,” Dean told me.
The EM-1 flight has many years of planning and development ahead and further revisions prior to the 2017 liftoff are likely.
“Final flight test objectives and the exact set of instrumentation required to meet those objectives is currently under development,” Dean explained.
Orion is NASA’s next generation manned space vehicle following the retirement of NASA’s trio of Space Shuttles in 2011.
The SLS launcher will be the most powerful and capable rocket ever built by humans – exceeding the liftoff thrust of the Apollo era Moon landing booster, the mighty Saturn V.
“We sent Apollo around the moon before we landed on it and tested the space shuttle’s landing performance before it ever returned from space.” said Dan Dumbacher, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, in a statement.
“We’ve always planned for EM-1 to serve as the first test of SLS and Orion together and as a critical step in preparing for crewed flights. This change still gives us that opportunity and also gives us a chance to test operations planning ahead of our mission to a relocated asteroid.”
Both Orion and SLS are under active and accelerating development by NASA and its industrial partners.
The 1st Orion capsule is slated to blast off on the unpiloted EFT-1 test flight in September 2014 atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket on a two orbit test flight to an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth’s surface.
Technicians work on mockups of the Orion crew capsule, Service Module and 6 ton Launch Abort System (LAS) to simulate critical assembly techniques inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida for the EFT-1 mission due to liftoff in September 2014. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
It will then reenter Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of about 20,000 MPH (11 km/sec) and endure temperatures of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit in a critical test designed to evaluate the performance of Orion’s heatshield and numerous spacecraft systems.
Orion EFT-1 is already under construction at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) by prime contractor Lockheed Martin – read my earlier story here.
Integration and stacking tests with Orion’s emergency Launch Abort System are also in progress at KSC – details here.
NASA says the SLS is also in the midst of a extensive review process called the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to ensure that all launch vehicle components and systems will achieve the specified performance targets and be completed in time to meet the 2017 launch date. The PDR will be completed later this summer.
NASA’s goal with Orion/SLS is to send humans to the Moon and other Deep Space destinations like Asteroids and Mars for the first time in over forty years since the final manned lunar landing by Apollo 17 back in 1972.
NASA Headquarters will make a final decision on upgrading the EM-1 mission after extensive technical reviews this summer.
Landing on asteroids will be a risky endeavor, perhaps aggravated by changes in asteroid dust when it's touched. Credit: NASA Near Earth Object Program
Imagine plunking your spacecraft down on an asteroid. The gravity would be small. The surface would be uneven. The space rock might be noticeably spinning, complicating your maneuvering.
Humans have done it with robotic spacecraft before. The first time was in 2001, when NASA made a stunning landing with the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft on Eros — using a craft that was not even designed to reach the surface. A new study, however, portrays getting close to these space rocks as perhaps even more hazardous than previously thought.
An experiment done aboard a “Vomit-Comet” like airplane, which simulates weightlessness, suggests that dust particles on comets and asteroids may be able to feel changes in their respective positions across far larger distances than on Earth.
“We see examples of force-chains everywhere. When you pick an orange from a pile in a supermarket, some come away easily, but others bring the whole lot crashing down. Those weight-bearing oranges are part of a force-chain in the pile,” stated Naomi Murdoch, a researcher at the Higher Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace) in Toulouse, France.
Naomi Murdoch and Thomas-Louis de Lophem in a zero gravity environment aboard a parabolic airplane, alongside the AstEx experiment. Credit: A. Le Floc’h, ESA
“One important aspect of such chains is that they give a granular material a ‘memory’ of forces that they have been exposed to. Reversing the direction of a force can effectively break the chain, making the pile less stable.”
The Asteroid Experiment Parabolic Flight Experiment (AstEx) experiment was designed by Murdoch, Open University’s Ben Rozitis, and several collaborators from The Open University, the Côte d’Azur Observatory and the University of Maryland. It had a cylinder with glass beads inside of it, as well as a rotating drum at the heart.
Stacked photo of the grains in the Asteroid Experiment (AstEx). Credit: AstEx team
In 2009, when they were postgraduate students, Murdoch and Rozitis took their contraption on board an Airbus A300, which flew parabolas to simulate microgravity while the aircraft falls from its greatest height.
During this time, the inner drum spun up for 10 seconds and then the rotational direction was reversed. What happened was tracked by high-speed cameras. Later, the researchers analyzed the movement of the beads with a particle-tracking program.
The researchers found that particles at the edge of the cylinder (the closest analog to low-gravity environments) moved more than those in similar environments on Earth. Those closer to the center, however, were not as greatly affected.
“A lander touching down on the surface on one side of a small, rubble-pile asteroid could perhaps cause an avalanche on the other side, by long-range transmission of forces through chains It would, however, depend on the angle and location of the impact, as well as the history of the surface – what kind of memories the regolith holds,” said Murdoch.
Technicians work on mockups of the Orion crew capsule, Service Module and 6 ton Launch Abort System (LAS) to simulate critical assembly techniques inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida for the EFT-1 mission due to liftoff in September 2014. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – NASA is picking up the pace of assembly operations for the Orion capsule, America’s next crew vehicle destined to carry US astronauts to Asteroids, the Moon, Mars and Beyond.
Just over a year from now in September 2014, NASA will launch Orion on its first test flight, an unpiloted mission dubbed EFT-1.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expert work crews are already hard at work building a myriad of Orion’s key components, insuring the spacecraft takes shape for an on time liftoff.
Orion crew capsule, Service Module and 6 ton Launch Abort System (LAS) stack inside the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Powerful quartet of LAS abort motors will fire in case of launch emergency to save astronauts lives. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.comUniverse Today is reporting on NASA’s progress and I took an exclusive behind the scenes tour inside KSC facilities to check on Orion’s progress.
In 2014 Orion will blast off to Earth orbit atop a mammoth Delta IV Heavy booster, the most powerful booster in America’s rocket fleet following the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle orbiters in 2011.
On later flights Orion will blast off on the gargantuan Space Launch System (SLS), the world’s most powerful rocket which is simultaneously under development by NASA.
At the very top of the Orion launch stack sits the Launch Abort System (LAS) – a critically important component to ensure crew safety, bolted above the crew module.
In case of an emergency situation, the LAS is designed to ignite within milliseconds to rapidly propel the astronauts inside the crew module away from the rocket and save the astronauts lives.
The LAS is one of the five primary components of the flight test vehicle for the EFT-1 mission.
Astronaut hatch swung open on Orion capsule mock up joined to base of Launch Abort System (LAS) emergency escape tower. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Prior to any launch from the Kennedy Space Center, all the rocket components are painstakingly attached piece by piece.
Final assembly for EFT-1 takes place inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
To get a head start on assembly with the launch date relentlessly approaching, technicians have been practicing lifting and stacking techniques for several months inside the VAB transfer aisle using the 6 ton LAS pathfinder replica and mock ups of the Orion crew and service modules.
This 175 ton hook and crane system used to maneuver the Orion crew capsule, Service Module and Launch Abort System (LAS) components inside the Vehicle Assembly Building the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Conducting the practice sessions now with high fidelity replicas serves multiple purposes, including anticipating and solving problems now before the real equipment arrives, as well as to keep the teams proficient between the years long launch gap between the finale of the Space Shuttle program and the start up of the Orion/SLS deep space exploration program.
Delicate maneuvers like lifting, rolling, rotating, stacking, gimballing and more of heavy components requiring precision placements is very demanding and takes extensive practice to master.
There is no margin for error. Human lives hang in the balance.
Technicians at work practicing de-stacking operations with full size mockups of the Orion capsule and Launch Abort System components inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
The same dedicated crews that assembled NASA’s Space Shuttles inside the VAB for 3 decades are assembling Orion. And they are using the same equipment.
“The breakover, taking the LAS from horizontal to vertical, is not as easy as it sometimes seems, but the VAB guys are exceptional, they are really good at what they do so they really didn’t have a problem,” says Douglas Lenhardt, who is overseeing the Orion mock-up and operations planning for the Ground Systems Development and Operations program, or GSDO.
Simulations with computer models are extremely helpful, but real life situations can be another matter.
“Real-life, things don’t always work perfectly and that’s why it really does help having a physical model,” says Lenhardt.
One day our astronauts will climb through an Orion hatch like this for America’s ‘Return to the Moon’ – following in the eternal footsteps of Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
During the unmanned Orion EFT-1 mission, the capsule will fly on a two orbit test flight to an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth’s surface, farther than any human spacecraft has gone in 40 years.
Asteroid 2013 MZ5 as seen by the University of Hawaii's PanSTARR-1 telescope. Credit: PS-1/UH
That pale white dot up there? No. 10,000 in a list of near-Earth objects. This rock, 2013 MZ5, was discovered June 18. It is 1,000 feet (300 meters) across and will not come anywhere near to threatening Earth, NASA assures us.
But what else is out there? The agency still hasn’t found every asteroid or comet that could come by Earth. To be sure, however, it’s really trying. But is there more NASA and other agencies can do to search? Tell us in the comments.
A bit of history: the first of these objects was discovered in 1898, but in recent decades we’ve been more systematic about finding them. This means we’ve been picking up the pace on discoveries.
Congress asked NASA in 2005 to find and catalog 90 per cent of NEOs that are larger than 500 feet (140 meters) in size, about enough to level a city. The agency says it has also found most of the very largest NEOs, those that are at least six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) across (and none so far discovered are a threat.)
The two main smoke trails left by the Russian meteorite as it passed over the city of Chelyabinsk. Credit: AP Photo/Chelyabinsk.ru
Still, NASA says once it achieves its latest goal (which it is supposed to be by 2020), “the risk of an unwarned future Earth impact will be reduced to a level of only one per cent when compared to pre-survey risk levels. This reduces the risk to human populations, because once an NEO threat is known well in advance, the object could be deflected with current space technologies.”
The major surveys for NEOs in the United States are the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS survey and the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Air Force and NASA. Worldwide, the current discovery rate is 1,000 per year.
EDIT: And NASA also recently issued an Asteroid Grand Challenge to private industry to seek solutions to find these space rocks. Check out more information here.
What more can be done to find and track threatening space rocks? Let us know below.
Artist concept of the Arkyd telescope in space. Credit: Planetary Resources Inc.
With more than $1 million in crowdfunded money secured for a public asteroid-hunting space telescope, the ultimate question arises: what about the promised planet chase?
Planetary Resources’ Arkyd-100 telescope reached its $1 million goal yesterday (June 20). But the self-proclaimed asteroid-hunting company has an ambitious aim to add extrasolar planet searching to the list if it can double that goal to $2 million.
The Kickstarter campaign for Arkyd still has 10 days remaining. To keep the funds flowing, the group behind it has released several “stretch” goals if it can reach further milestones:
– $1.3 million: A ground station at an undisclosed “educational partner” that would double the download speed of data from the orbiting observatory.
Example of an orbital ‘selfie’ that Planetary Resources’ ARKYD telescope could provide to anyone who donates to their new Kickstarter campaign. Credit: Planetary Resources.
– $1.5 million: This goal, just released yesterday, is aimed at the more than 20,000 people who signed up for “space selfies” incentive where uploaded pictures are photographed on the telescope while it is in orbit. For this goal, “beta selfies” will be taken while the telescope is in the integration phase of the build.
– $1.7 million: The milestone will be announced if Arkyd reaches 15,000 backers. (It has more than 12,000 as of this writing.)
Uranus viewed in the infrared spectrum, revealing internal heating and its ring system. Image Credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, (Univ. Wisconsin-Madison), Keck Observatory
As Uranus speeds in its orbit in the solar system, there are three large space rocks that are in lockstep with the gas giant, according to new simulations. Two of them are wobbling in unstable “horseshoe” orbits near Uranus, while the third is in a more reliable Trojan orbit that is always 60 degrees in front of the planet.
The largest of this small group is the asteroid Crantor, which is 44 miles (70 kilometers) wide. Its horseshoe orbit, and that of companion 2010 EU65, means the space rocks seesaw between being close to Uranus and further away. They should stay in that configuration for a few million years.
The last of the group is 2011 QF99, in a Trojan orbit near one of Uranus’ Lagrangian points — sort of like a celestial parking spot where an object can hang out without undue influence from the balanced gravitational forces.
An artists impression of an asteroid belt(credit: NASA)
The results illustrate the importance of space rocks that are outside of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
There are several kinds of these asteroids (classified by their orbits) that follow around planets in the solar system. Earth itself, for example, has at least one Trojan asteroid.
“Crantor currently moves inside Uranus’ co-orbital region on a complex horseshoe orbit. The motion of this object
is primarily driven by the influence of the Sun and Uranus, although Saturn plays a significant role in destabilizing its orbit,” the authors wrote in their new study.
“Although this object follows a temporary horseshoe orbit, more stable trajectories are possible and we present 2010 EU65 as a long-term horseshoe librator candidate in urgent need of follow-up observations.”
Radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2 and its satellite on June 7. Each frame in the animation is a sum of 4 images, spaced apart by about 10 minutes. (Arecibo Observatory/NASA/Ellen Howell)
On the last day of May 2013 asteroid 1998 QE2 passed relatively closely by our planet, coming within 6 million kilometers… about 15 times the distance to the Moon. While there was never any chance of an impact by the 3 km-wide asteroid and its surprise 750 meter satellite, astronomers didn’t miss out on the chance to observe the visiting duo as they soared past as it was a prime opportunity to learn more about two unfamiliar members of the Solar System.
By bouncing radar waves off 1998 QE2 from the giant dish at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, researchers were able to construct visible images of the asteroid and its ocean-liner-sized moon, as well as obtain spectrum data from NASA’s infrared telescope in Hawaii. What they discovered was quite surprising: QE2 is nothing like any asteroid ever seen near Earth.
The 305-meter dish at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (Image courtesy of the NAIC – Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF)
Both Arecibo Observatory and NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California are unique among telescopes on Earth for their ability to resolve features on asteroids when optical telescopes on the ground merely see them as simple points of light. Sensitive radio receivers collect radio signals reflected from the asteroids, and computers turn the radio echoes into images that show features such as craters and, in 1998 QE2’s case, a small orbiting moon.
QE2’s moon appears brighter than the asteroid as it is rotating more slowly; thus its Doppler echoes compress along the Doppler axis of the image and appear stronger.
Of the asteroids that come close to Earth approximately one out of six have moons. Dr. Patrick Taylor, a USRA research astronomer at Arecibo, remarked that “QE2’s moon is roughly one-quarter the size of the main asteroid,” which itself is a lumpy, battered world.
Dr. Taylor also noted that our own Moon is a quarter the size of Earth.
QE2’s moon will help scientists determine the mass of the main asteroid and what minerals make up the asteroid-moon system. “Being able to determine its mass from the moon helps us understand better the asteroid’s material,” said Dr. Ellen Howell, a USRA research astronomer at Arecibo Observatory who took both radar images of the asteroid at Arecibo and optical and infrared images using the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. While the optical images do not show detail of the asteroid’s surface, like the radar images do, instead they allow for measurements of what it is made of.
“What makes this asteroid so interesting, aside from being an excellent target for radar imaging,” Howell said, “is the color and small moon.”
Radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2 and its satellite (top) on June 6. (Arecibo Observatory/NASA/Ellen Howell)
“Asteroid QE2 is dark, red, and primitive – that is, it hasn’t been heated or melted as much as other asteroids,” continued Howell. “QE2 is nothing like any asteroid we’ve visited with a spacecraft, or plan to, or that we have meteorites from. It’s an entirely new beast in the menagerie of asteroids near Earth.”
Spectrum of 1998 QE2 taken May 30 at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea was “red sloped and linear,” indicating a primitive composition not matching any meteorites currently in their collection.
For more radar images of 1998 QE2, visit the Arecibo planetary radar page here.
Source: Universities Space Research Association press release.
An artist's conception of a spacecraft designed to pick up an asteroid. Credit: NASA/Advanced Concepts Laboratory
In a few generations of robotics, we’ll see mighty machines able to fully construct themselves and operate from the surface of asteroids — providing applications for mining, NASA researchers say in a new study.
The scientists are convinced that this type of research is not only possible, but also able to support itself financially. (Costs overruns are a notorious factor in space exploration as it pushes frontiers both literally and engineering-wise.)
“Advances in robotics and additive manufacturing have become game-changing for the prospects of space industry. It has become feasible to bootstrap a self-sustaining, self-expanding industry at reasonably low cost,” the researchers stated in a new study.
A couple of factors are pointing to this, researchers said: private industry is willing and able to get involved. Advances in technologies such as 3-D printing are making off-world work more feasible. Also, humanity’s surveys of space resources has revealed the elements needed to make rubber, plastic and alloys needed for machinery.
NASA proposes a robotic flotilla could mine nearby space rocks. They caution the technology won’t be ready tomorrow, and more surveys will need to be done of nearby asteroids to figure out where to go next. There is, however, enough progress to see building blocks, the agency stated.
An artist’s conception of a space exploration vehicle approaching an asteroid. Credit: NASA
“Robots and machines would just make the metal and propellants for starters,” stated Phil Metzger, a senior research physicist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, who led the study.
“The first generation of robots makes the second generation of hardware, except the comparatively lightweight electronics and motors that have to be sent up from Earth. It doesn’t matter how much the large structures weigh because you didn’t have to launch it.”
A computer model in the study showed that in six generations of robotics, these machines will be able to construct themselves and operate without any need of materials from Earth.
Artist impression of the Arkyd Interceptor, a low cost asteroid mission that enables accelerated exploration. Credit: Planetary Resources.
In the past year, members of both firms have proposed asteroid mining ideas, and since then, Planetary Resources has also unveiled other projects such as a public space telescope (perhaps in a bid to diversify revenues and attract more attention.)
That’s received many questions from critics (including at least one government space committee), but NASA has argued it is feasible and a way to unite innovation across various sectors.
“Because asteroids are loaded with minerals that are rare on Earth, near-Earth asteroids and the asteroid belt could become the mining centers for remotely-operated excavators and processing machinery,” NASA stated.
Asteroid 951 Gaspra. Credit: NASA
“In the future, an industry could develop to send refined materials, rare metals and even free, clean energy to Earth from asteroids and other bodies.”
Chris Lewicki in the clean room. His role as flight director for the two MER rovers and surface operations manager for the Phoenix mission required an intimate knowledge of all the spacecraft systems. Image courtesy Chris Lewicki.
Chris Lewicki is the President and Chief Engineer for one of the most pioneering and audacious companies in the world today. Planetary Resources was founded in 2008 by two leading space advocates, Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X-Prize Foundation and Eric Anderson, a forerunner in the field of space tourism. In from the earliest days of the company, in turning to Lewicki, Anderson and Diamandis have gained scientific and management expertise which reaches far beyond low Earth orbit.
Chris is a recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals and has an asteroid name in his honour, 13609 Lewicki. Chris holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona.
In this exclusive interview with Nick Howes, Lewicki gives us a feel for what lies behind Planetary Resources most compelling step yet in their quest to bring space to the masses.
Chris Lewicki is the President and Chief Engineer for Planetary Resources, Inc. Image courtesy Planetary Resources.
Nick Howes – So Chris, what first inspired you to get in to astronomy and space science?
Chris Lewicki – So, I guess it wasn’t a person as most would say, but a mission that got me started on this road. Even before college, and you have to remember I grew up in dairy country in Northern Wisconsin, where we didn’t really have much in the way of space. I wanted to do something interesting, and found I was good at math. When I saw the Voyager 2 spacecraft flyby of Neptune and Triton, I thought “wow this is it,” and wanted to work at JPL pretty much from that moment onwards. Thinking that this was a “really special place.”
Voyager 2’s encounter with Nepture. Credit: NASA
NH – At college were you determined to work for someone like NASA, and was your time at Blastoff a good stepping stone in to this?
CL – I think it really did start even before college, like I said, from the Voyager 2 encounter and all the subsequent missions which JPL were involved in this was kind of the goal. Ahead of JPL though, was my first encounter with Peter (Diamandis) and Eric (Anderson) when we worked on starport.com where I was a web developer. Prior to that I’d had a spell at the Goddard Space Flight Centre, but with Eric and Peter, we really did form a bond. Starport didn’t last too long though, as it was at the time of the dotcom boom and bubble, but it taught me some valuable lessons in those months.
Then I took up a position at JPL, but as you probably know, not everything they do is mission design and planning, and while it is an amazing place, I wanted to get my hands on some real mission stuff, so moved on after just under a year.
Then came Blastoff which kind of set a lot of the wheels in motion for ideas relating to the Google Lunar X-Prize. We had a lot of fun there designing rovers and exploratory missions to the Moon, lots of great people with great ideas.
I was then at a small satellites conference in Utah, when a representative of JPL came up to me after my talk, gave me his business card and effectively said I should come and do an interview for them. Peter and Eric didn’t really want me to go, but I told them “I really have to go off and learn how to build rockets.” Thus really started the real journey working with NASA on some of the most exciting missions in recent history.
NH – How thrilling was it being the flight director for two of the most successful missions in NASA’s history?
A view of the Flight Control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the landing of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, with Chris in the Flight Director hotseat. Credit: NASA/JPL.
CL – Thrilling really doesn’t come close to covering it. There I was, 29 years old, thinking “should I really be doing this?” but then, realising “yes, I can do this” sitting in the flight directors desk for two of NASA’s most audacious missions, being Spirit and Opportunity. It was my role to get them safely down on the surface, and boy did we test those missions.
The simulators were so realistic; we’d be running so many different scenarios for years prior to the actual EDL phase, now known as the “7 minutes of terror”. It really doesn’t feel quite real though when it’s actually happening, you just know it is because the room is full of TV cameras, and you have that extra notion in the back of your mind saying it’s not a sim this time. The telemetry though in the simulations was so close to the real data, just a few variations, it kind of showed how much testing and planning went in to those missions, and how it all paid off.
NH – With Phoenix you’d obviously experienced the sadness of the loss of Polar Lander before hand; did that teach you any valuable lessons which you have now carried forward to your role at Planetary Resources?
CL – Phoenix started with a failure review, but that’s what I think is so important about engineering and indeed life in general. You have to fail to understand how to make things better. During that design review we figured out a dozen more reasons for things that could have gone wrong with Mars Polar Lander, and implemented the changes for Phoenix. You have to plan for failure so much with missions of this type, and it’s quite an exhilarating but in some ways stressful ride, and one that after Phoenix I felt like I needed to pass the mantle on to for Curiosity.
NH – On the topic of Planetary Resources, when did you start to think about being part of a company of this magnitude?
Artist concept of the ARKYD spacecraft by an asteroid. Credit: Planetary Resources.
CL – Well working with Peter and Eric again was mooted as long ago as 2008, the company ideas being formulated then when it was called Arkyd Astronautics, a name which stuck with us until 2012. Eric and Peter approached me about possibly coming back. As I said, I’d pretty much resigned myself to not working on Curiosity, and having to put myself through all of the phases associated with that landing, and there’s a quote which many people believe comes from Mark Twain, but is really from Jackson Brown, that basically says
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” I decided to throw off the bowlines and set sail with Planetary Resources.
NH – How do you see your relationship with a company like Planetary Resources with the major space agencies? Do you see yourselves as complimenting them or competing?
CL – Complimenting totally. NASA has over 50 years of incredible exploration, missions, research, development and insight, and a great future ahead of them too. With NASA recently transferring some of their low Earth orbit operations in to the commercial sector, we feel that this is really a great time to be in this industry, with our goals for being at the forefront of the types of science and commercial operations that the business sector can excel in, leaving NASA to focus on the amazing deep space missions, like landing on Europa or going back to Titan, missions like that, which only the large government agencies can really pull off at this time.
NH – The Arkyd has to be one of the most staggering Kickstarter success stories ever, raising aaround $800,000 in a week…did you imagine that the reaction to putting a space telescope available for all in to orbit would garner so much enthusiasm?
Artist concept of the ARKYD telescope in space. Credit: Planetary Resources.
CL – Staggering again doesn’t really do it enough justice. This is the biggest space based Kickstarter in their history, as it’s also in the photography category; it’s the biggest photographic Kickstarter ever too. We have many more surprises planned which I can’t go in to now, but in setting the $1 million minimum bar to “test the water” with public interest in a space telescope, we’ve not really exceeded expectations, but absolutely reached what we felt was possible. From talking to people ahead of the launch, and just seeing their reaction (note from author, I was one of those people, and my reaction was jaw dropping) we knew we had something really special. The idea of the space selfie we felt was part of the cornerstone of what we wanted to achieve, opening up space to everyone, not just the real die hard space enthusiasts.
NH – With the huge initial success of the Arkyd project, do you see any scope for a flotilla of space telescopes for the public, much like say the LCOGT or iTelescope networks are on Earth?
CL – Possibly in the future. You yourself know with your work with the Las Cumbres and Faulkes network and iTelescope networks that having a suite of telescopes around the planet has huge benefits when it comes to observations and science. At present we have the plan for one telescope for public use as you know.
The Arkyd 100, which will be utilising our Arkyd technologies, which we’ll be using to examine near Earth asteroids. If you think, that in the last 100 years, the Hale’s, Lowell’s etc of this world were all private individuals sponsoring and building amazing instruments for space exploration, it’s really just a natural progression on from this. We’re partnering closely with the Planetary Society on this, as they have common goals and interests to us, and also with National Geographic. We feel this really does open up space to a whole new group of people, and it’s apparent from the phenomenal interest we’ve had from Kickstarter, and the thousands of people who’ve pledged their support, that this vision was right.
NH – Planetary Resources has some huge goals in terms of asteroids in future, but you seem to have a very balanced and phased scientific plan to study and then proceed to the larger scale operations. Does this come from your science background?
CL – As I said, I grew up in dairy country in Wisconsin, where I had to really make my own opportunities be a part of this industry, there was no space there. On saying that, I have been an advocate of space pretty much all my life, and yes, I guess my scientific background, and experience with working at JPL has come to bear in Planetary Resources. We have a solid plan in terms of risk management with our “swarm” mentality, of sending up lots of spacecraft, and even if one or more fails, we’ll still be able to get valuable science data. I see it really in that lots of people have big ideas, and set up companies with them, but then after initial investment dries up, the ideas may still be big and there, but there is no way to pursue them.
We’ve all come from companies which have seen this kind of mindset in the past, and now, whilst we love employing students and college graduates who have big ideas, who take chances, we have a plan, a long term, and sustainable plan, and yes, we’re taking a steady approach to this, so that we can guarantee that our investors get a return on what they have supported.
NH – Can you give us a timeline for what Planetary Resources aim to achieve?
CL – Our first test launch will be as early as 2014, and then in 2015 we’ll start with the space telescopes using the Arkyd technology. By 2017 we hope to be identifying and on our way to classification of potentially interesting NEO targets for future mining. By the early 2020’s the aim is to be doing extraction from asteroids, and starting sample return missions.
NH – You were and still it seems from all I have read, remain passionate about student involvement, with SEDS etc, what could you say to younger people inspired by what you’re doing to encourage them to get in to the space industry?
CL – Tough one, but I’d say that looking at the people you admire, always remember that they are not superhuman, they are like you and me, but to have goals, take chances and be determined is a great way to look forward. The SEDS movement played a big part in my early life, and I would encourage any student to get involved in that for sure.
NH – In conclusion, what would be your ultimate goal as a pioneer of the new frontier in space exploration?
CL – Our ultimate goal is to be the developer of the economic engine that makes space exploration commercially viable. Once we have established that, we can then look at more detailed exploration of space, with tourism, scientific missions, and extending our reach out even further. I’ve already been a part of placing three missions on the surface of Mars, so nothing really is beyond our reach.
Nick’s closing comments :
I first met Chris at the Spacefest V conference in Tucson, where he gave me a preview of the Arkyd space telescope. There is no doubt in my mind that after meeting him, that he and the team at Planetary Resources will succeed in their mission. A quite brilliant individual, but humble with it, someone who you can spend hours talking to and come away feeling truly inspired. This interview we talked for what seemed like hours, and Chris said I could have written a book with the answers he gave, I hope this article gives you some taste however of the person behind the missions which, at the new frontier of exploration, much like the prospectors in the Gold Rush, are charting new and unknown, yet hugely exiting territories. As the old saying goes…and possibly more aptly then ever… watch this space.
