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NASA Demonstrates Space Launch System Adaptive Controls

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Leslie Williams, Public Affairs, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Can a rocket maneuver like an airplane? And can an airplane act as a surrogate for a maneuvering rocket?

NASA engineers demonstrated just that when they used a NASA F/A-18 aircraft recently to simulate a rocket in its early flight phase to test adaptive software for NASAs new rocket the Space Launch System (SLS), the largest, most powerful launch vehicle for deep space missions.

The tests are helping engineers working on the development of the SLS at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., ensure the rocket can adjust to the environment it faces as it makes its way to space.

Engineers reviewed the root causes of historical launch vehicle failures and found that although guidance, navigation and control systems were rarely the cause of the incidents, they discovered that advancements in this technology could result in expanded capabilities to keep the rocket on track in the face of anomalies that might occur in flight.

When NASA develops new technology for launch vehicles like Adaptive Augmenting Control, we want to test it in order to mature the technology and build our confidence in it, said Tannen VanZwieten, NASA Marshalls SLS flight control lead. But in lieu of a launch vehicle flight test, we need to find creative ways to mature it through testing in a relevant environment.

With our flight software, the SLS program at Marshall partnered with NASAs Engineering and Safety Center, Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., and the Space Technology Mission Directorates Game Changing Development Program to test our algorithm on a NASA F/A-18 airplane, added VanZwieten.

An early version of an adaptive control system was used on the last X-15 rocket plane that was built in the 1960s. As the X-15 reached thinning atmosphere at the edge of space, the adaptive control system automatically responded to the changing conditions by increasing the responsiveness of the control surfaces to commands.

An adaptive control system is any type of control system that changes its parameters in flight to adjust to information that it learns about the vehicle that is different from what was predicted before flight, explained Jeb Orr of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.

Conventional control systems are designed or tuned using models on the ground, he added. Naturally, the way the vehicle behaves in flight is never exactly the same as modeled, so the control system must be robust that is, able to tolerate flying a vehicle that is a bit different from what the designers expect.

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NASA Demonstrates Space Launch System Adaptive Controls

NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission: $6 Million In Awards For New Ideas On Capturing Near-Earth Objects

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Artist's concept of an astronaut retrieving a sample as part of the Asteroid Redirect Mission. NASA

According to NASA, the Asteroid Redirect Mission will pave the way for the manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, the challenge set forth by President Barack Obama in 2010. As part of the mission, after NASA sends a near-Earth Object (NEO) to a safe orbit, the space agency will send astronauts to explore and collect samples of the asteroid, to occur in the 2020s.

NASA is accepting proposals for innovations in asteroid-capture systems, rendezvous sensors and commercial spacecraft modifications, as well as studies for future commercial partnerships.

William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA, said in a statement, To reach Mars, we'll rely on new technologies and advanced capabilities proven through the Asteroid Initiative. We're looking forward to exciting ideas from outside NASA as well to help realize that vision.

The Asteroid Redirect Mission proposal due date is May 5, with the award date scheduled for July 1. NASA says the contract will run through 2014. The call for proposals comes after NASA's announcement of the first Asteroid Grand Challenge Contest. The space agency is putting up $35,000 in reward money, and the first contest involves developing improved asteroid-detecting algorithms.

These missions are part of NASA's Asteroid Initiative which includes the Asteroid Redirect Mission as well as the Grand Challenge to find all potential asteroid threats. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has established the Near Earth Object Program, which tracks asteroids and comets and also assesses potential impact risk.

NASA is not the only one concerned about NEOs, as the United Nations will head a defense plan called the International Asteroid Warning Group. The new technology incorporated in the asteroid mission, such as the Orion Spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket, will be vital for the future mission to Mars. NASA has scheduled an Asteroid Initiative Opportunities Forum for March 26 that will include updates on the mission and the Grand Challenge.

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NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission: $6 Million In Awards For New Ideas On Capturing Near-Earth Objects

NASA Wants $6 Million Worth of Ideas for Grabbing Asteroid

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NASA is putting out a formal call for projects that will help robots and astronauts grab an asteroid from deep space and bring it closer to Earth for study.

The Broad Agency Announcement, released Friday, envisions spending up to $6 million on as many as 25 proposals this year. The proposals should focus on technologies that can be used to identify potential targets, send robotic spacecraft to capture the selected asteroid and put it in a stable orbit beyond the moon, or help astronauts get to the space rock and bring back samples in the mid-2020s.

"We're reaching out to seek new and innovative ideas as we extend the frontier of space exploration," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said in a news release. "To reach Mars, we'll rely on new technologies and advanced capabilities proven through the Asteroid Initiative. We're looking forward to exciting ideas from outside NASA as well to help realize that vision."

Capitalizing on ideas

The space agency is planning an Asteroid Initiative Opportunities Forum at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Wednesday to provide more information for potential participants. Next week's forum will be live-streamed online to folks who sign up.

Proposals are due May 5, and NASA plans to make awards around July 1 for projects that would wrap up in six months.

Greg Williams, NASA's deputy associate administrator for plans and policy, said the selection process would build on a workshop that generated hundreds of ideas for asteroid exploration last year. "We've got folks thinking," he told NBC News. The Broad Agency Announcement provides a "focused way" to capitalize on those ideas, he said.

NASA is already supporting projects such as the Asteroid Data Hunter contest, which is offering $35,000 in awards over the next six months to citizen scientists who come up with improved algorithms for identifying asteroids. The contest, part of the agency's Asteroid Grand Challenge Series, is being conducted in partnership with Planetary Resources, a commercial venture that's working on a new generation of space telescopes as well as asteroid-mining spacecraft.

What lies ahead

Next year, NASA will review mission concepts for redirecting an asteroid up to 30 feet (10 meters) wide or breaking off a piece of a bigger asteroid and bringing it back.

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NASA Wants $6 Million Worth of Ideas for Grabbing Asteroid

NASA Discovers New Gully on Mars

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A NASA spacecraft has spotted a big gully on Mars, a feature that appears to have formed only within the last three years.

The powerful HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) imaged the channel, which is found on the slope of a crater wall in the Red Planet's mid-southern latitudes, on May 25, 2013. The feature was not present in HiRISE photos of the area taken on Nov. 5, 2010. NASA unveiled the image on Wednesday.

This pair of before (left) and after (right) images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter documents the formation of a substantial new channel on a Martian slope between Nov. 5.

While the Mars gully looks a lot like river channels here on Earth, it likely was not carved out by flowing water, NASA officials said.

"The dates of the images are more than a full Martian year apart, so the observations did not pin down the Martian season of the activity at this site," officials wrote in a description of the gully image on Wednesday.

But, they added, "before-and-after HiRISE pairs of similar activity at other sites demonstrate that this type of activity generally occurs in winter, at temperatures so cold that carbon dioxide, rather than water, is likely to play the key role."

However, MRO has observed other Martian features that do seem associated with liquid water dark streaks known asrecurring slope lineae.

RSL lines snake down crater walls and other slopes during warm weather on the Red Planet, and some researchers think they're caused by briny water that contains an iron-based antifreeze. Direct evidence of flowing water at RSL sites, however, remains elusive.

Ancient Mars was much more hospitable to life. For example, NASA's Curiosity rover discovered an ancient lake-and-stream system near its Red Planet landing site that could have supported microbial life billions of years ago.

- Mike Wall, Space.com

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NASA Discovers New Gully on Mars

NASA Seeks Proposals on Asteroid Redirect Mission Concepts Development

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In support of NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission a key part of the agencys stepping stone path to send humans to Mars agency officials are seeking proposals for studies on advanced technology development.

Through a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), released Friday, NASA hopes to solicit proposals for concept studies in areas including asteroid capture systems, rendezvous sensors, adapting commercial spacecraft for the Asteroid Redirect Mission and feasibility studies of potential future partnership opportunities for secondary payloads and the crewed mission.

"As NASA continues to make great progress refining our mission concepts, we're reaching out to seek new and innovative ideas as we extend the frontier of space exploration," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "To reach Mars, we'll rely on new technologies and advanced capabilities proven through the Asteroid Initiative. We're looking forward to exciting ideas from outside NASA as well to help realize that vision."

Following evaluations of the proposals, NASA plans to select no more than 25 proposals and make total awards of as much as $6 million. Contracts would begin and end this year. More information can be found in the BAA, available at:

http://go.nasa.gov/1jhiPXs

The announcement precedes a Wednesday, March 26, Asteroid Initiative Opportunities Forum at NASA Headquarters. The forum will provide status updates from ongoing Asteroid Redirect Mission concept and extensibility refinement and expand on the BAA, which is a follow-on step from the 2013 Request for Information in mission planning activities. The event also will highlight opportunities for public engagement in the mission and activities associated with the agency's Asteroid Grand Challenge. The forum will be carried on NASA Television and streamed online for virtual participants. For the agenda and to register as a virtual participant, go to:

http://socialforms.nasa.gov/asteroidforum-virtual

NASA's Asteroid Initiative includes the Asteroid Grand Challenge and the Asteroid Redirect Mission. The grand challenge will develop new partnerships and collaborations to accelerate the agency's existing planetary defense work, and the mission will collect and redirect an asteroid where astronauts can explore and sample it.

The Asteroid Redirect Mission has three major elements: target identification; a robotic mission to capture and redirect the selected asteroid into a stable orbit beyond the moon; and a crewed segment in which astronauts in NASA's Orion spacecraft launched on the Space Launch System rocket will rendezvous with the captured asteroid, conduct spacewalks to collect samples from it, and return them to the Earth for analysis. New capabilities and systems tested through the Asteroid Initiative will advance NASA's ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars.

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NASA Seeks Proposals on Asteroid Redirect Mission Concepts Development


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