Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission Continues to Move Forward

Artists concept of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission capturing an asteroid boulder before redirecting it to an astronaut-accessible orbit around Earth’s moon. (Credit: NASA)

NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission continues to move forward with concept and technology development despite a general lack of political support from Congress.

The project is split between different parts of NASA, with the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate as the lead and the Space Technology Mission Directorate in charge of technology development.

Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (Credit: NASA/AMA Studios)

“Between fiscal years 2015 and 2019, the Space Technology Mission Directorate plans to spend $230 million to develop SEP technologies,” the GAO report said. “The ARRM project also plans to leverage advanced controls, sensors, and robotics technologies from the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Restore-L satellite servicing mission, but as a result of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, funding for Restore-L cannot be used to support activities solely needed for ARRM. The project assumes that approximately $50 million to $60 million of the planned funding between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 for maturing Restore-L technologies will also support ARRM’s development.”

The relevant section of the GAO report is reproduced below.

ASTEROID REDIRECT ROBOTIC MISSION

The Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) aims to retrieve a boulder from a selected asteroid and place it into lunar orbit for future human exploration. ARRM and the planned follow-on crewed mission to the boulder are capability demonstration missions, which are primarily designed to develop systems and provide the types of operational experiences required for future human and robotic exploration of Mars. ARRM will demonstrate technologies important for longer-duration, deep-space missions, such as advanced solar electric propulsion (SEP). The mission will also demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique by gravitationally altering the asteroid’s trajectory.

Project Summary

The ARRM project plans to leverage technologies from development efforts managed and funded by multiple NASA directorates, which could pose challenges for the project. The project’s cost and schedule estimates assume that the agency will sufficiently fund these efforts. The Space Technology Mission Directorate is responsible for advanced SEP development, which contains some of the project’s most significant risks. NASA has developed and tested prototypes of major SEP components, but there is limited time to complete their development, due in part to the project’s launch window. NASA is also studying options for the ARRM spacecraft design and awarded four early design study contracts in January 2016 that will inform the spacecraft development contract.

Cost and Schedule Status

The ARRM project entered the concept and technology development phase in April 2015. The project has set an initial development cost cap of $1.25 billion, not including a launch vehicle or mission operations, and a launch readiness date of December 31, 2020.

Funding

The ARRM project is dependent on development efforts from multiple NASA directorates and the project’s cost and schedule estimates assume that the agency will sufficiently fund these efforts.

The Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate is the lead for the effort, but the Space Technology Mission Directorate will provide technology in key areas. The project plans to leverage high-powered solar electric propulsion (SEP) technologies currently being funded and developed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Between fiscal years 2015 and 2019, the Space Technology Mission Directorate plans to spend $230 million to develop SEP technologies. The ARRM project also plans to leverage advanced controls, sensors, and robotics technologies from the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Restore-L satellite servicing mission, but as a result of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, funding for Restore-L cannot be used to support activities solely needed for ARRM. The project assumes that approximately $50 million to $60 million of the planned funding between fiscal years 2015 and 2019 for maturing Restore-L technologies will also support ARRM’s development.

Technology

NASA has developed and tested prototypes of major components that could be used on the advanced SEP system, but the system remains a source of cost and schedule risk for the project. SEP uses energy from the sun to accelerate propellant to produce a more fuel efficient thrust, which could benefit longer missions because it requires less propellant and reduces spacecraft mass.

Among the potential SEP-related risks for the project is the limited amount of time to develop the system’s component technologies, such as the power processing unit and solar array hardware. Development time is limited, in part, due the mission’s December 2020 target launch readiness date.

Design

The ARRM project is studying options for the spacecraft design, and hopes to achieve cost savings and reduce risk by building on a commercially available spacecraft. The project awarded four early design study contracts in January 2016 to inform the spacecraft development contract.

The ARRM project has noted that if new crew safe requirements or requirements to support the follow-on Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission, planned for 2025, are added to the project, then development costs could significantly increase.

One of the key design assumptions for ARRM is that its Asteroid Redirect Vehicle will be “crew safe,” but not “human rated.” ARRM will carry hardware to make it possible for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle to dock with the ARRM vehicle after it brings the captured boulder into lunar orbit and for astronauts to conduct a study of the captured boulder outside the vehicle.

If this follow-on crewed mission requires the ARRM Asteroid Redirect Vehicle to meet human-rated systems standards, such as resistance to cracking, then the vehicle would require design changes and additional testing.

Other Issues to Be Monitored

NASA has taken steps to address potential management and funding complexities that could affect the execution of ARRM. In November 2015, the heads of the human exploration and space technology mission directorates signed a memorandum of agreement defining the programmatic relationship between the two directorates for ARRM development. The project also plans to use a streamlined process for upcoming key decision point reviews.

Project Office Comments

ARRM project officials provided technical comments to a draft of this assessment, which were incorporated as appropriate.