Lockheed Martin

A MISSION CONCEPT STUDY SHALL BE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE ESTIMATED MISSION COST AND POSSIBLE SCIENCE CAPABILITIES OF A NEAR EARTH ASTEROID SURVEY MISSION USING A CONSTELLATION OF CUBESATS AS PROPOSED IN 16-PSDS316-006 "CAESAR: CUBESAT ASTEROID ENCOUNTERS FOR SCIENCE AND RECONNAISSANCE." THE CUBESAT ASTEROID ENCOUNTERS FOR SCIENCE AND RECONNAISSANCE (CAESAR) MISSION WOULD SURVEY SEVERAL NEAR EARTH ASTEROIDS USING A CONSTELLATION OF IDENTICAL 6U CUBESATS EVOLVED FROM LOCKHEED MARTIN'S SKYFIRE DEEP-SPACE CUBESAT PLATFORM. EACH CUBESAT WOULD PERFORM A LOW-VELOCITY FLYBY OF A NEAR EARTH ASTEROID TO RETURN REMOTE-SENSING DATA TO PROVIDE BASIC PHYSICAL PROPERTIES DATA ON A VARIETY OF ASTEROIDS TO UNDERSTAND THE DIVERSITY OF THE NEAR EARTH ASTEROID POPULATION ACROSS DIFFERENT SIZE RANGES FROM 10 M TO 1KM, DIFFERENT SPIN PERIODS FROM MINUTES TO DAYS, AND DIFFERENT COMPOSITIONS. EACH FLYBY WOULD RETURN DATA ON SIZE, SHAPE, SPIN PERIOD, COLOR, SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS, AND MASS (FOR SMALLER ASTEROIDS, COMPUTED IN COMBINATION WITH ASTROMETRY). THE CAESAR STUDY WOULD INVESTIGATE UPGRADES TO THE SKYFIRE PLATFORM TO IMPROVE CAPABILITIES FOR ASTEROID ENCOUNTERS, SUCH AS AUGMENTING THE TOTAL DELTAV CAPABILITY AND ENHANCING THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM TO OPERATE AT GREATER RANGES. CAESAR COULD LAUNCH IN A CUBESAT DISPENSER ON MANY POTENTIAL PRIMARY MISSIONS, AND INITIALLY ASSUMED WOULD BE LAUNCHES ONTO TRANS-LUNAR TRAJECTORIES CONSISTENT WITH A PRIMARY LUNAR SCIENCE MISSION OR ANNUAL LAUNCHES OF SLS/ORION. CAESAR CUBESATS WOULD TARGET AN INITIAL LUNAR FLYBY INTO A PHASING ORBIT AND LOITER THERE UNTIL THE TIMING IS RIGHT TO DEPART FOR THE TARGET. A SUBSEQUENT LUNAR GRAVITY ASSIST WOULD PROVIDE A LOW-ENERGY ESCAPE INTO HELIOCENTRIC ORBIT TARGETING A SLOW FLYBY OF A NEAR EARTH ASTEROID. SEVERAL ASTEROIDS WOULD BE ACCESSIBLE WITH FLYBY VELOCITIES OF 0.7 TO 4 KM/S, WHICH WOULD BE SLOW COMPARED TO HISTORICAL FLYBY SPEEDS.

program · Award ID: 80HQTR18C0007