JPL Goes After Asteroid Like a Big Game Hunter

It sounds like a plot right out of Hollywood Sci-Fi movie. Grab an asteroid, redirect its course, put in orbit around the moon and land on it…

Such an announcement came from Jet Propulsion Laboratory today. Pasadena’s JPL says it plans to use a robotic spacecraft to snatch a multi-ton asteroid from deep space during the first segment of its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to eventually put feet on its ground.

After corralling the boulder, the plan is for the spacecraft to redirect it to an orbit around the moon in such a way that would make an asteroid accessible to space crews for the first time in history. According to a statement released to the media, NASA plans to conduct a series of ground missions that will help find out the capabilities required for a mission to Mars.

To make this a reality, JPL issued a request for proposal to four industry partners seeking the design and development of a craft capable of such a task. The four partners have previously completed conceptual designs for the spacecraft.

ARM, a two-part mission that uses both robotic and manned spacecrafts in space, passed review in August, meaning JPL can now proceed to the next phase of its development.

The four vendors involved with the craft’s conceptual design are Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Boeing Satellite Systems in Los Angeles, Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia and Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, California. The proposed designs are due to JPL by October 24, who will choose which company builds the craft in 2017.

To build such a craft, engineers must take into account many technical aspects, such as performing precise autonomous operations close to low-gravity bodies and controlling touchdowns and liftoffs while holding on to large asteroids. The craft would also need a high-powered solar propulsion system.

The JPL statement says, “the robotic ARM spacecraft will demonstrate the world’s most advanced and most efficient electric propulsion system as it travels to a near-Earth asteroid.”

NASA plans to pick the specific asteroid they will latch the craft onto by 2020 but have preliminary settled on 2008 EV5 as the target because they believe the rock to be rich in volatiles, water and organic compounds.