Launching Science Science Opportunities Provided by NASA's Constellation System (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: Summary Analysis of Mission Concepts That Would Not Benefit from the Constellation System
Appendix B: Summary Analysis of Mission Concepts That Would Not Benefit from the Constellation System
Pages 117-132
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From page 117... ...
Boggs, University of California, Berkeley, for the ACT Study Team, "ACT, Advanced Compton Telescope: Witness to the Fires of Creation," NASA Vision Mission Concept Study Report, arXiv:astro-ph/0608532v1, December 2005; and J Kurfess, U.S.
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From page 118... ...
(green) Delta IV 4m fairing 309 kg capacity Reserve envelope included in 2 each 2 each design 01.0m x 0.6m FIGURE B.1 Artist's illustration of the Advanced Compton Telescope both in mission configuration and stowed within a Delta IV Heavy Launch Vehicle payload shroud.
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From page 119... ...
SOURCE: Adapted from ACT, Advanced Compton Telescope: Witness to the Fires of Creation, NASA Vision Mission Concept Study Report, December 2005, available at http://arxiv.org/ftp/astro-ph/papers/0608/0608532.pdf, p.
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From page 120... ...
observations of distant galaxies, the intergalactic and interstellar medium, and circumstellar winds and disks are considered necessary to an understanding of the formation of stars and galaxies and the energy balance in the universe. Two big problems have prevented far infrared astronomy from becoming as important as optical astronomy is as an information channel for studying the universe -- relatively low sensitivity and poor angular resolution owing to the small diameters of those telescopes, and the strong, variable far infrared (FIR)
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From page 121... ...
problematic compared with the typical size of distant galaxies, ∼0.1 arcsec or less at high redshifts, and it will limit the sensitivity of even large infrared telescopes, such as the SAFIR Telescope. If it works as planned, the SPECS will advance many areas of astrophysics by substantial factors.
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From page 122... ...
General Cost Category in Which This Mission Concept Is Likely to Fall At present, this mission appears to be considerably more expensive than the SAFIR Telescope owing to the amount of technical development yet to be done, meaning a cost of more than $5 billion. Future developments in tethered flight, FIR detectors, cooled telescopes, and fast delay lines might decrease these costs substantially, but the upfront investment at this time appears large.
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From page 123... ...
As designed, it will improve the sensitivity of far-infrared observations by two to four orders of magnitude and the angular resolution by more than a factor of 10 compared with the sensitivity and resolution of previous missions. More importantly, the combination of sensitivity and resolution will allow the SAFIR Telescope to have a major impact on almost every major subfield of astronomy at distances stretching from the closest stars to the most distant observable galaxies.
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From page 124... ...
Characteristics of the Mission Concept as Developed to Date The SAFIR Telescope would build on the technological improvements developed for the James Webb Space Telescope and would appear to be a logical follow-on to that observatory (subject to evaluation by the decadal survey)
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From page 125... ...
The SAFIR Telescope received a high rank in the 2001 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey, 10 and the more developed concept presented in the Vision Mission study should make it equally attractive in the next decadal survey. SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION/ASTROBIOLOGY VISION MISSION: PALMER QUEST 11 Scientific Objectives of the Mission Concept Palmer Quest, a proposal for a mission to the North Polar Cap of Mars, would include a nuclear reactorpowered "cryobot" to drill down through the polar ice to its bottom and determine if life once existed on Mars (Figure B.4)
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From page 126... ...
SOURCE: Courtesy Figure A.4.eps of NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Includes low resolution bitmap image The Palmer Quest objectives include looking for the presence of microbial life, amino acids, nutrients, and geochemical heterogeneity in the ice sheet; quantifying and characterizing the provenance of the amino acids in Mars's ice; assessing the stratification of outcropped units for indications of habitable zones; and determining the accumulation of ice, mineralogical material, and amino acids in Mars ice caps over the present epoch.
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From page 127... ...
However, the mission has not been endorsed by any recent NRC reports and does not appear in the 2003 solar system exploration decadal survey.12 Characteristics of the Mission Concept as Developed to Date The maturity of the Palmer Quest mission concept is low. Some of the scientific instruments follow in the footsteps of current and planned Mars missions such as Phoenix Lander and the Mars Science Laboratory.
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From page 128... ...
This is an expensive, complex, and high-risk mission that does not require the Constellation System and could use an existing launch vehicle such as the Delta IV. The Palmer Quest mission has not appeared in any previous NRC reports, including the solar system exploration decadal survey 13 and the recent report An Astrobiology Strategy for the Exploration of Mars.14 In addition, the technical maturity of this mission is low.
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From page 129... ...
grant and recommended as high priority for the 2008-2013 time frame; and the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) , first selected by ESA for a concept study before the Columbia accident, which prevented it from being transported to the International Space Station (ISS)
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From page 130... ...
Figure A.6.eps Bitmap image - Low resolution tion and selected for technology development, but the review committee believed that the mission was not technically mature enough to proceed to flight at the time. The mission proposed here is an enlarged and improved version of the OWL and EUSO mission concepts, improving on the performance by exploiting novel technologies.
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From page 131... ...
would require an Ares V launch vehicle, as it offers a sufficiently large fairing to launch this experiment. Should This Concept Be Studied Further as a Constellation-Enabled Science Mission?
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From page 132... ...
as there seems to be no technical solution for their manufacturing or launch or a technical path to such development. Other, more feasible mission concepts, such as multiple smaller telescopes or different wide-angle telescope designs that can be manufactured, as well as ground-based expansions of systems such as the Pierre Auger Observatory, should be considered as a more cost-effective means of reaching the scientific goals.
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