Report Series: Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science Review of the Commercial Aspects of NASA SMD's Lunar Science and Exploration Initiative (2019) / Chapter Skim
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Review of the Commercial Aspects of NASA SMD's Lunar Science and Exploration Initiative
Review of the Commercial Aspects of NASA SMD's Lunar Science and Exploration Initiative
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consider two medium-class, New Frontiers lunar missions for selection between 2013 and 2022: South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return and Lunar Geophysical Network.5 Although these missions have not yet been selected for flight, the 2018 decadal midterm review Turning Visions into Voyages for Planetary Sciences in the Decade 2013-2022: A Midterm Review6 noted key lunar scientific advances coming out of U.S. and 1 National Research Council (NRC)
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Recent data have shown water ice in polar, permanently shadowed regions. A key question is whether the surface volatile deposits are sourced from delivery by exogenous impactors, release of water from the lunar interior, or creation from the solar wind.
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Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program As described in Review of the Planetary Science Aspects, the fiscal year 2019 (FY2019) PSD budget request allocates approximately $200 million for the new Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program.
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Instrument providers are encouraged to use the opportunity to propose instruments that support NASA's broader lunar exploration goals, including science, human exploration, and ISRU -- enabling technologies for the future that may include cryogenic sample return, sealed sample return, and extreme temperature survival to assist in lunar night and polar regions missions. NASA has now received 47 Step 2 proposals12 that include instrumentation for the following: 12 J.A.R.
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Ultimately, commercial lunar landers and rovers could comprise an important element of a future lunar exploration infrastructure, which may encompass such human-tended elements as NASA's proposed lunar orbiting Gateway. While the first opportunities for these companies are to deliver payloads for science and exploration, some have an eye toward potentially more profitable activities ranging from delivery of personal artifacts to tourism and mining.14 The CLPS program is designed to provide on-ramps for more providers to engage in competition at later dates should commercial capabilities increase to midsized landers and rovers.
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Demonstration of such a landing, or even achieving lunar orbit, would nevertheless be a notable accomplishment. The recent commercial provider RFP stipulates that the offeror provide an intact lunar landed mission that delivers at least 10 kg of NASA payload to the lunar surface before December 31, 2021.18 Capabilities of Science Instruments and Their Readiness A request for information (RFI)
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Interfaces Undefined NOTE: The information in this table is an amalgamation of capabilities presented to the committee, and no single provider achieved all of the high-end capabilities. Hosted Payloads -- Lessons Learned from Other NASA Programs and Agencies In addition to hearing from commercial lunar lander providers, the committee received presentations from the Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP)
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In conclusion, the GAO determined that commercially hosted payloads have great potential and that "centralized collection and assessment of agency-wide data would help enable DOD to mitigate the logistical challenges inherent in matching payloads to hosts, and better position DOD to make reasoned, evidence-based decisions on whether a hosted payload would be a viable solution."25 Assessment of Readiness to Integrate Science Instruments with Commercial Landers As noted above in the CLPS RFP, the contractor is being asked to provide all activities necessary to safely integrate, accommodate, transport, and operate NASA payloads using contractor-provided assets, including launch vehicles, lunar lander spacecraft, lunar surface systems, Earth reentry vehicles, and associated resources. During presentations to the committee and in reviewing the RFP, the committee learned that the CLPS RFP has not defined potential interfaces with science instrumentation or any potential instrument concepts or operations needs.
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SCIENCE FROM LUNAR LANDERS Several measurements are possible with the commercial lunar landers described to the committee. These measurements map to the science objectives of the community-consensus lunar science concepts presented at the beginning of this short report.
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Short-term monitoring of solar wind, radiation, dust, and the lunar atmosphere. Monitoring over the course of the lunar day is possible with static landers.
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Finding. There are multiple scientifically valuable measurements that could be made from the planned first generation of commercial lunar landers that are static and live only through the sunlit portion of the lunar day (short-lived)
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Finding. The planned first generation of commercial lunar landers that are static and short-lived could deploy mobile platforms; however, it is not yet apparent that the mobile platforms would have sufficient capabilities such as payload resources and support or traverse speed to achieve science objectives that involve mobility.
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Mobility, the ability to survive the lunar night, the ability to land in more "risky" terrains, and the ability to collect samples for return are key technologies that might be developed after the planned first generation of commercial lunar landers. Nascent plans for all of these objectives were presented by the commercial providers to CAPS, although further technical development efforts are needed to enable missions with expanded capabilities.
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2, 3, 4, 5, 10 Lunar interior measurements 2, 9, 11 Electromagnetic induction 2, 9, 11 In situ age dating 1, 3, 5, 6, 9 Heat flow measurements 2 Short-term mobile Lava tube investigation 5 platforms Lunar swirls 7, 8 Geologic processes 1, 3, 5, 6, 11 Longer-term landers Seismic activity monitoring (long-term) 2, 6, 11 (lunar night survival)
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The first steps that NASA has taken with the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program -- to establish a new generation of lunar lander capabilities and interfaces -- allow a preliminary assessment of the science potential of these new public-private partnerships. These steps, if implemented with a systems engineering approach that considers long-term capabilities and establishes reasonable interface definition to ensure the accommodation of quality science instruments, will begin to clarify the economic feasibility of the commercially driven approach.
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commercial lunar landers carrying scientific payloads would allow realistic cost estimates or envelopes for instrumentation, sample handling, surface interactions, mobility, and survivability to be determined for such missions as well as for more advanced lunar-based investigations. The earlier such information is available to the upcoming planetary science decadal survey, the more useful it will be in planning for the next decade of lunar science and exploration.
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