NASA's Moon-Mars Plans Take Shape

As analysts had expected, a stark financial and resource refocusing is underway at NASA in which robotic efforts will be planned less for pure science and more for supporting future human spaceflight.

The first mission to the Moon will likely be an orbiter that generates NASA's first digital map of the pockmarked world, officials said Wednesday. It will be a reconnaissance craft designed to help prepare for a return of astronauts as early as 2015, as envisioned last month by President George W. Bush.

The second new lunar foray, in 2009, will be with a robotic lander whose goals are not yet clear.

"These missions will not be driven by science," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for the NASA’s Office of Space Science. "They will be driven by preparations for human landings."

The initial robotic journey back to the Moon will nonetheless yield "a lot of science," Weiler said, but "we are going to the Moon to prepare to go to Mars, where we will do the real science."

Some geologists are eager for human exploration of Mars in order to conduct an investigation more thorough than what can be accomplished with robots. Some say only humans will be able to determine whether Mars does or ever did harbor life, and only humans can turn all the pages of the complex book of geology written in Martian rocks.

Critics argue you can send dozens of robots for the price of one manned mission.

Weiler and his colleagues spoke to reporters Wednesday in a conference call, explaining details of the President's 2005 budget request that has just been sent to Congress.

In that request is additional funding for NASA, lifting the agency's budget from $15.38 billion to $16.24 billion. It also details how existing funds will be redirected to support the White House goal of returning astronauts to the Moon and eventually putting people on Mars.

Astronomers and planetary scientists have worried that the president's new vision might cause casualties in robotic and telescopic programs.

"Space science is alive and well," Weiler declared. "We have healthy budget increases. In comparison to the rest of the government we obviously have nothing to complain about."

However, NASA remains firm, he said, on a decision not to service the Hubble Space Telescope. That conclusion was reached based on concern for astronaut safety, not budget issues, the agency maintains. Hubble could last into 2008 but almost surely not beyond.

The 2005 NASA spending request -- less than 1 percent of the overall federal budget -- must be approved by Congress and could be picked apart. Space policy analysts say Bush and NASA must convince lawmakers and the public that the added cost of sending people beyond low-Earth orbit is worthwhile.

Space science would get $4.07 billion, up from $3.97 billion in 2004. Earth science would drop from $1.61 billion to $1.49 billion. Biological science research would rise from $985 million to $1.05 billion.

The remainder of the budget would be spent mostly on human spaceflight efforts, including the shuttle program, the space station, and research into a new vehicle capable of flying astronauts to the Moon. Bush has called for a phase-out of the shuttles after space station construction is completed. Then money from both those projects would be diverted to the new vision.

In the new NASA, robotic missions must more closely relate to the overall effort to put people on other worlds.

Weiler pointed out that prior to the Apollo missions, robots photographed the Moon from above and landers explored the surface. A similar but more expedited robotic campaign will be carried out this time.

NASA often plans robotic missions over the course of a decade or so. Now scheduling is on a comparative fast track.

"We've got a pretty good idea of what we want to do with the first Moon mission," Weiler said, adding that he's confident the orbiter can be ready in four years.

"This will be the first digital recon mission of the Moon," he said. In addition to high-resolution photographs, the orbiter will likely work to map lunar resources, such as water ice that is suspected of hiding in permanently shadowed craters. Frozen water would be a key resource for any future Moon base, providing drinking water and, when broken down into hydrogen, fuel for return flights or missions beyond the Moon.

The initial lunar craft might also include a radiation detector. Ironically, NASA knows more about the potentially harmful radiation environment at Mars than it does with the Moon. A follow-up lander mission, in 2009, may or may not include a rover, Weiler said.

Mars missions will begin shifting focus early in the next decade, said Orlando Figueroa, one of Weiler's top lieutenants and the NASA official in charge of exploring the Moon and planets.

So far, Mars missions have been geared toward the search for water, as well as understanding the climate, atmosphere and environment as a whole. The new budget provides more money to examine safety issues at the red planet, "so we can begin preparing in a more focused way" for sending humans, Figueroa said.

He added that in 2011, the focus starts to shift from looking for water to looking for organic compounds, signs of life or signatures of the seeds of life.

Money has also now been set aside to prepare for a sample return mission to Mars. That effort, on the drawing boards for some time and once scheduled for launch as early as 2003, had not been adequately funded in terms of dealing with analysis of whatever is brought back. Funding to develop new technology for that effort is now written into the 2005 budget request.

Figueroa said a Mars sample return would launch in 2013 at the earliest. He said it would likely involve a static lander and not a roving craft.

These missions, as well as the current rovers on Mars, will all generate a picture of the red planet that will help officials decide where to send humans, how they will survive, and what they'll need to take with them.

No timetable has been set for putting astronauts on Mars, though. The president called for continual reevaluation of short-term spaceflight goals as technology improves and funding is secured in the years to come.

The White House vision was, at least in part, designed to get a flailing space agency back on track after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Many space policy experts have long said NASA has been largely directionless for three decades and that money was being wasted running circles around Earth.

Weiler said NASA's back-to-back failures in 1999, of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, were blessings in disguise.

Had those missions succeeded, NASA would not have had the funding necessary to proceed with other missions on the ambitious red planet schedule that had been in place, he said. The failure led to a restructuring of the entire Mars program, with which he is now pleased.

Project Prometheus
(formerly the Nuclear Systems Initiative)

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was the wisest of the Titans, and he gave the gift of fire to humanity. The name Prometheus means 'forethought.'

For NASA, the name ?Prometheus? is indicative of our hope to establish a new tool for understanding nature and for expanding our exploration capabilities. The gift of fire to humans was a powerful gift. We believe that the knowledge that will be enabled by the technologies developed by Project Prometheus will also be a powerful gift. NASA intends that Project Prometheus will be a true gift that will enable the peaceful exploration of the Solar System and our ability to answer important questions about the origin of life in the universe. The Nuclear Systems Initiative was a useful title for the proposed program in that it was clear, concise and easily identifiable. As we move forward with the program, we believe that a name that also contains meanings related to our goals should be used, therefore, we have changed the name to ?Project Prometheus.?

Project Prometheus will develop the means to efficiently increase power for spacecraft, thereby fundamentally increasing our capability for Solar System exploration. Increased power for spacecraft means not only traveling farther or faster, but it also means exploring more efficiently with enormously greater scientific return. High levels of sustained power would permit a new era of Solar System missions designed for agility, longevity, flexibility, and comprehensive scientific exploration. Some possibilities we envision are:

We could conduct comprehensive and detailed investigations creating comparative data sets of the outer planets-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune-and all their moons and associated objects. The knowledge we gain with these data sets would be vital to understanding other planetary systems recently discovered (we?ve discovered more gas giants than Earth-like planets to date).
The surfaces and interiors of comets could be comprehensively explored, and we could even return samples to better understand the building blocks of the universe.
At Mars, we could dramatically expand our capabilities for surface, on-orbit exploration and sample return.
At the edge of the Solar System, if we?re not limited by power, there is important knowledge about the origins of the Solar System to be gained from understanding Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

Today, only nuclear power can enable these scientifically vital, but incredibly challenging missions.

Technology Focus

Pending approval by Congress, NASA?s Project Prometheus would develop the technologies needed to enable the above vision for the future. There are two basic types of technology under consideration for this program: (1) radioisotope-based systems and (2) nuclear fission-based systems.

Radioisotope Power System (RPS) development would focus on two technologies, the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) and the Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG), that are expected to improve the efficiency and utility of systems that NASA has been using for 30 years. These essential improvements on our current technology would enable an ?all weather, anywhere, anytime? exploration of planetary surfaces.

The fission power and propulsion research would focus on developing the nuclear systems needed for revolutionary new capabilities in space exploration. Project Prometheus would include research on reactors, advanced heat-to-power conversion, and power management and distribution technologies to provide spacecraft flexibility, long-mission durations, and orders of magnitude more power for science instruments. See the NASA Fact Sheet on Space Fission Reactor Power Systems for additional information.

Programmatic Focus

Project Prometheus will be a NASA program with substantial involvement of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NASA would define the science requirements for future exploration missions and manage the RPS and fission-based programs, as well as the spacecraft systems engineering. A substantial portion of Project Prometheus research and development will be competitively awarded. The DOE will manage work awarded in the nuclear area, while NASA centers (Glenn Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will manage work awarded in the non-nuclear area.

The initial activity for the fission power and propulsion program will focus on defining the near-term technology research goals, and on identifying planetary science missions uniquely enabled by nuclear fission electric power and propulsion. The RPS program will concentrate on developing the MMRTG and SRG systems (either of which could be of potential use on the Mars Smart Lander Mission to be launched in 2009). The program has also identified a planetary science mission that will be uniquely enabled by nuclear fission electric power and propulsion: the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter would be an ambitious mission to orbit three planet-sized moons of Jupiter -- Callisto, Ganymede and Europa -- which may harbor vast oceans beneath their icy surfaces. The mission would orbit each of these moons for extensive investigations of their makeup, their history and their potential for sustaining life.

In addition, a range of technologies and system designs will be explored that may be prudent for NASA and DOE to invest in over the next several years, beyond the specific technologies already under consideration. NASA and DOE would also identify and recommend additional strategic technology investments to potentially enable future human exploration of the Solar System.

In keeping with NASA goals of openness and transparency, Project Prometheus would seek to ensure open, inclusive dialogue and engagement with the public, media, educators, legislators, and others; foster technology education and outreach programs; and make appropriate materials available on the Internet.

Focus on Safety

Project Prometheus would continue to emphasize the safe way we operate and design missions. For NASA, the key word in this sentence is ?safe? -- safety is the primary operating principle for Project Prometheus. NASA has over 30 years? experience in the successful management and operation of RPS missions. Working with the DOE, NASA will extend that safety experience to the design, manufacture, and flight of a fission reactor-based mission. The reactor will have multiple safety features including a design that will prevent criticality while the vehicle is still near Earth. Also, Project Prometheus will continue to engage expertise in continuous risk management and risk assessment and will fully comply with environmental and nuclear safety launch approval processes. For further information, see the NASA Fact Sheets on RPS safety and fission reactor power system safety.

Focus on the Future

Project Prometheus would enable the fulfillment of NASA?s most challenging scientific goals, and will provide the essential ability to answer our most intriguing questions: Is there life elsewhere in the Solar System? How was the Solar System created and what is its future? These questions can be answered when we are able to explore--with enough time and power-enabled by the ability to change course in mid-mission to take advantage of the opportunities presented by new discoveries. Providing these important capabilities is the focus of Project Prometheus.

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