{"id":18550,"date":"2018-04-28T00:39:20","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T16:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-is-reworking-its-moon-rover-mission-amid-outcry-from-lunar-advisory-group\/"},"modified":"2018-04-28T00:39:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T16:39:20","slug":"nasa-is-reworking-its-moon-rover-mission-amid-outcry-from-lunar-advisory-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-is-reworking-its-moon-rover-mission-amid-outcry-from-lunar-advisory-group\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA is reworking its moon rover mission amid outcry from lunar advisory group"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_415924\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-415924\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-415924\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/180427-resourceprospector-630x462.jpg\" alt=\"Resource Prospector\" width=\"630\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/180427-resourceprospector-630x462.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/180427-resourceprospector-768x564.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/180427-resourceprospector.jpg 782w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-415924\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A prototype for the Resource Prospector rover undergoes field testing. (NASA via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An influential group of advisers on lunar exploration says NASA is canceling its Resource Prospector mission to explore the moon\u2019s surface in the 2020s&nbsp;\u2014 and urged the agency\u2019s newly sworn-in administrator, Jim Bridenstine, to reverse the decision.<\/p>\n<p>In response, NASA pledged today that \u201cselected instruments from Resource Prospector will be landed and flown on the moon\u201d as part of an expanded robotic campaign that will make use of commercial landers and rovers.<\/p>\n<p>The tumult over the $250 million mission comes as Bridenstine and the White House\u2019s National Space Council are ramping up their back-to-the-moon campaign. Resource Prospector appears to have been caught up in that campaign\u2019s fast-moving paradigm shifts.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter addressed to Bridenstine, members of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group said they were told that the Resource Prospector mission was canceled this week, and that the project had to be closed down by the end of May.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is critical that NASA provide strong leadership in documenting that lunar surface return is being actively pursued,\u201d LEAG chairman Samuel Lawrence and emeritus chair Clive Neal wrote. \u201cCancellation of the only NASA lunar surface mission currently under development to obtain strategic data from the moon\u2019s polar regions is not the way to signal that intention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter came to light even as Bridenstine sent out a tweet saying he was \u201cexcited to get to work on our plan to sustainably return America to the surface of the moon, starting with an aggressive robotic program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Resource Prospector\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fMXWsiaEK6Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lawrence, a planetary scientist at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center, deferred comment on the controversy when contacted by GeekWire via email.<\/p>\n<p>Neal told GeekWire that canceling Resource Prospector&nbsp;\u2014 which would be designed to rove around areas of the moon\u2019s polar regions, drill out samples of water ice and analyze them&nbsp;\u2014 \u201cseems out of step\u201d with the Trump administration\u2019s heightened interest in lunar exploration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were a little disturbed,\u201d said Neal, who is an engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame. \u201cAnd I\u2019m being deliberately ironic there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the scientific instruments for the mission already have undergone testing. The lander and the rover, however, are still in the preliminary design phase. The most recent mission plan called for launch in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The LEAG letter suggested that Resource Prospector was being canceled because responsibility was transferred from the NASA directorate in charge of human exploration to the science mission directorate, and that the aims and budgetary support for the mission were judged to be out of sync with the science directorate\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n<p>Resource Prospector\u2019s main task is to determine how to take advantage of lunar ice deposits to produce drinkable water, breathable oxygen and rocket fuel for future moon settlements. In their pitch to restart the mission, Lawrence and Neal pointed out that analyzing those deposits could bring scientific payoffs as well.<\/p>\n<p>The statement that NASA issued today suggests that the agency will continue to pursue the objectives of the Resource Prospector mission, but not in the way that was previously envisioned:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cNASA is developing an exploration strategy to meet the agency\u2019s expanded lunar exploration goals. Consistent with this strategy, NASA is planning a series of progressive robotic missions to the lunar surface. In addition, NASA has released a request for information on approaches to evolve progressively larger landers leading to an eventual human lander capability. As part of this expanded campaign, selected instruments from Resource Prospector will be landed and flown on the moon. This exploration campaign reinforces&nbsp;Space Policy Directive 1, which calls for an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system, including returning humans to the moon for long-term exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Bridenstine himself underscored that view of the road ahead in a follow-up tweet:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimBridenstine\/status\/989975389870215169<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s lander program is expected to focus on commercial capability, starting with spacecraft that can land up to 500 kilograms, then moving to medium-size landers (500-1,000 kilograms) and large landers (5,000-6,000 kilograms) in the mid-2020s.<\/p>\n<p>Neal said he was not aware of any commercial lunar landers on the drawing boards that could handle the 300-kilogram payload for Resource Prospector by 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Commercial landers with that capability have been proposed, however. For example, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic is designing its Griffin lander to deliver up to 500 kilograms to the lunar surface, and it\u2019s also working on a Polaris rover that could fit Resource Prospector\u2019s requirements, CEO John Thornton told GeekWire.<\/p>\n<p>He said Astrobotic\u2019s smaller-scale Peregrine lander and the NASA-supported CubeRover should be ready to fly by mid-2020, and the Griffin and Polaris could be ready by 2022. \u201cThe capability\u2019s certainly there,\u201d Thornton said.<\/p>\n<p>Other companies, including Florida-based Moon Express, have their own plans for progressively larger landers. Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has proposed building a Blue Moon lander that could deliver 5,000 kilograms of cargo to the lunar surface. Last year, Blue Origin said Blue Moon could be ready by 2020 if it could join forces with NASA in a public-private partnership.<\/p>\n<p>Thornton emphasized that it was up to NASA to decide how to proceed with lunar in-situ resource utilization, better-known as ISRU. \u201cWe are super-supportive of NASA\u2019s interest in ISRU,\u201d he said. \u201cWe leave it up to NASA to figure out how best to pursue their objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA isn\u2019t the only space agency interested in ISRU. Just this week, a German company called PTScientists announced that it\u2019s one of the companies participating in the European Space Agency\u2019s Lunar ISRU Demonstration Mission Definition Study. Like NASA, ESA is planning a lunar mission to test ISRU techniques by the mid-2020s, with a heavy reliance on private-sector capabilities.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hat tip to SpaceRef for providing the text of the LEAG letter to Bridenstine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A prototype for the Resource Prospector rover undergoes field testing. (NASA via YouTube) An influential group of advisers on lunar exploration says NASA is canceling its Resource Prospector mission to explore the moon\u2019s surface in the 2020s&nbsp;\u2014 and urged the agency\u2019s newly sworn-in administrator, Jim Bridenstine, to reverse the decision. In response, NASA pledged today [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[697,625,190,2973],"class_list":["post-18550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astrobotic","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-resource-prospector"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}