Computer Science
Scientific paper
Jul 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993metic..28r.331b&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics, vol. 28, no. 3, volume 28, page 331
Computer Science
Asteroids, Meteorites, Spectral Reflectance
Scientific paper
The REAACT (Rendezvous with Earth Approaching Asteroids) mission was a proposal to last year's Discovery Program Workshop. This mission is designed to address the major question in asteroid science, the link between the spectral diversity of the asteroids and their geochemistry. Spectral diversity is perhaps the overriding feature of the asteroids. There are currently 17 different asteroid spectral types with at least 5 spectral types having no established meteoritical analogs and several more types having dubious or poorly defined analogs. The best way to link the large body of meteorite geochemical data with the groundbased remote sensing spectral data is asteroid rendezvous that yield imaging, IR-spectroscopy, and high-precision geochemical data. However, part of the scientific landscape are the severe programmatic and budgetary constraints that are imposed by limited NASA resources. The Discovery program was conceived as a way of maximizing those limited resources by emphasizing small, short missions with highly focused scientific objectives. Even with the lowcost Discovery-type missions, we cannot expect more than one or two asteroid rendezvous/sample return missions per decade. But missions that only target a single asteroids for rendezvous cannot provide a statistically meaningful sample of the wide diversity within the asteroids. It will take decades under the current budget constraints to build up an accurate picture of asteroidal geochemistry from single missions. The only way to address the diversity of the asteroids is with multiple rendezvous and REAACT proposes to do exactly that by buying at least four high-quality rendezvous spacecraft under a single Discovery cost cap. This is accomplished by adherence to four cost-saving principals: Maximum Use of Existing Commercial Equipment: REAACT uses the TRW Eagle-class lightsats for the spacecraft bus and a commercial space-qualified CCD camera for the imager. Scientific Instruments of Simple Design and Extensive Heritage: The primary geochemical instrument is an Alpha X-Ray spectrometer that first flew on the Surveyor missions in the 1960s. Target Near-Earth Asteroids: The program targets small asteroids with low- i, low- e and semi-major axis near 1.0 AU using single launches that place the spacecraft on a direct rendezvous trajectory. This keeps cruise times short and makes data return much easier. Built-in Redundancy: Risk is reduced by having multiple spacecraft rather than expensive redundant systems on each spacecraft. This greatly reduces spacecraft cost, complexity, and mass; and with multiple spacecraft the loss of one or even two spacecraft will not cause the failure of the program. In addition the mission plans for all the rendezvous are essentially identical to reduce mission planning and operations costs to a minimum. REAACT offers a cost-effective way to address the fundamental questions of asteroid science. Its advantage lies in its simplicity and redundancy. REAACT can deliver at least four identical commercial-grade spacecraft for quick rendezvous with four asteroids within the budget constraints of one Discovery mission.
Bell Jon F.
Britt Daniel T.
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