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Living and working 63 feet below the Atlantic Ocean\u2019s surface on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Aquarius Reef Base undersea research habitat, the NEEMO 16 expedition will focus on restraint and translation techniques, and optimum crew size.<\/p>\n
Adding to the realism of a deep space mission at an asteroid, NASA\u2019s Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) are involved once again, treating actual EVAs (or Waterwalks) during NEEMO 16 as if they are in deep space by utilizing communication delays and protocols. The MOD team is based in a mobile Mission Control Center (MCC).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Z63.jpg\" "\\"Z6\\"")
Last year\u2019s NEEMO 15 was the first real full scale operation, continuing the trend of testing equipment and operations required for exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs).<\/p>\nThe missions treat the underwater environment like a giant Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), allowing for specialist divers to simulate working on a NEA, communicating \u2013 with time delays \u2013 with mission control and practising the use of tools to work on an asteroid.<\/p>\n
A key objective of the NEEMO missions is the evaluation of different anchoring methods and how to connect the multiple anchors to form pathways.<\/p>\n
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The aquanauts and engineers evaluate different strategies for deploying instruments and moving along a surface without gravity, mirroring conceptual graphics of an astronaut working up close and personal with a NEA.<\/p>\n
Click here for NEO\/NEA Articles: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/tag\/neo\/<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/A1110A1.jpg\" "\\"A1110A1\\"")
Adding to the realism, the mission includes the use of DeepWorker submersibles, acting as an underwater stand-in for the Multi Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV), which is currently the leading concept to be the main NEA exploration vehicle at the site at the asteroid, utilizing its robotic arms and crew airlock.<\/p>\nAquarius acts as the Deep Space Hab (DSH) for these missions, a large element of hardware that would arrive at the NEA after being launched from Earth on the Space Launch System (SLS) \u2013 likely the 105mt Block 1A Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) or the new variant of the SLS that will be reported in an upcoming article.<\/p>\n
NEA-1:<\/p>\n
Technically, a lot of work has been completed on the baseline for a mission to a NEA, not least the options for how the mission would be conducted once at the asteroid. However, a preferred plan \u2013 and indeed a destination \u2013 remains completely undefined, with the notional target for such a mission placing it at least 13 years into the future.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/A37.jpg\" "\\"A37\\"")
There is no need to rush towards a full outline, not least because it is so many years away, although NASA recently explained the complex nature of at least selecting which asteroid to visit and the challenges of sending a crew safely there and back.<\/p>\n\u201cBecause there are thousands of known NEAs, and likely many more to be discovered, one of the first challenges of a NEA mission is choosing the ideal destination,\u201d noted a public exploration overview presentation. \u201cDistance is another challenge. Although some NEAs pass close to Earth, even within the Moon\u2019s orbit, larger and more interesting NEA destinations may be tens of millions of miles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo reach these NEAs, astronauts would have to travel about six months for a round trip, which is a long time to go without a resupply of water, food, or air longer than has ever been attempted in space.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/A164.jpg\" "\\"A164\\"")
To date, the only notional targets were revealed in the \u201cFlexible Approach\u201d presentation (available on L2 -LINK), created after the Augustine Commission\u2019s review into NASA\u2019s Human Space Flight activities.<\/p>\nA mission to Near Earth Object 1999AO10, requiring a mission launch date of January 2, 2026, is the first case example examined by the NASA authored study.<\/p>\n
The NEO 1999AO10 deep space mission would last 155 days, around half of the mission length for the alternative candidate mentioned in the Flexible Path approach \u2013 304 days \u2013 for a mission to NEO 2001 GP2.<\/p>\n
How to get both the crew and the considerable amount of hardware to a NEA destination is also still under evaluation, with multi-launch SLS campaigns the baseline approach, and the use of an Exploration Platform or Gateway \u2013 as the centrepiece of several exploration pathways \u2013 the alternative.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Z213.jpg\" "\\"Z213\\"")
A several month internal study \u2013 a high level effort within the ongoing NASA exploration roadmap evaluation drive and specific to the Gateway \u2013 is coming to a conclusion this month.<\/p>\nThis relates to a Gateway that would be built at the International Space Station (ISS) and then sent to Earth Moon Lagrange point (EML2) via Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP). This Gateway would provide a staging post for missions to the Lunar Surface, NEAs, Mars and potentially other destinations.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Z45.jpg\" "\\"Z45\\"")
For a NEA specific mission, Boeing outlined a conceptual approach involving the EML2 Gateway at last year\u2019s Global Exploration Workshop. Under this Boeing plan, Solar Electric Propulsion would be used by NASA for NEA missions \u2013 a technology also cited by Aerojet.<\/p>\nThis new propulsion system would be gradually developed over the next 10 years, although a demonstration flight would be capable of readiness by 2014.<\/p>\n
A NASA docking system, Spacecraft boom, triple panel SEP module, Solar Array mast, and Alpha-joint (similar to the ISS\u2019 Beta joint) would be developed between 2016 and 2020 \u2013 all leading to the creation of a 320 kW SEP operational spacecraft for NEA missions by 2022.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Z91.jpg\" "\\"Z9\\"")
Under the Boeing notional plan, a 2024 NEA mission to NEA2008EV5 would depart not from Earth but from the ISS-EP at the Earth-Moon L2 (EML2) point.<\/p>\nUsing the new SEP technology, transit from the EML2 point to the NEA of interest would take approximately 100 days with SLS\u2019 third stage used to \u201ckick start\u201d the stage and shorten the trip. SLS would be involved with the Gateway plan.<\/p>\n
Investigations at the NEA would last for approximately 30 days before a ~235-day trip back to Earth for a total mission duration of roughly one year.<\/p>\n
This alternative plan is internally considered as the most exciting option, with a full outline of the Gateway options and progress into its development roadmap to be outlined in a future article.<\/p>\n
(Images: L2 Content, NASA, NEEMO and Boeing)<\/p>\n
(NSF and L2 are providing full exploration roadmap level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS\/CRS\/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles.)<\/p>\n
(Click here to join L2: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The international crew of the NEEMO 16 (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) mission have begun their mission at the Aquarius underwater habitat in Key Largo, Florida. The 10 day mission will simulate Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) exploration procedures, although a real mission remains a notional and undefined target. NEEMO 16: NASA astronaut and former space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30355,"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":[8969,8958,7873],"class_list":["post-40094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nea","tag-neemo","tag-neo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40094"}],"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=40094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}