16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 1

The Future of LCAS, Explorers, and

Missions of Opportunity

Community Discussion

LCAS = Low Cost Access to Space

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 2

From the 2003 SEC Roadmap

• “NASA should broaden the range of launch vehicles to fill gaps in capability.”

• “NASA should develop the ability to purchase secondary payload space on US and foreign launch vehicles …”

• “The Explorer, Discovery, and suborbital programs fill a critical niche in SEC science.”

Section 7.1 Access to Space

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 3

From the 2003 SEC Roadmap

“NASA should strive to maintain the Explorer program originally conceived by alternately selecting small and medium SEC-theme Explorer missions each year. Similarly, it should launch either a medium or a small explorer mission each year.”

Explorer Program

Discovery Program

“… NASA and the planetary community should remain open to including Discovery missions that address comparative planetary environments.”

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 4

From the 2003 SEC Roadmap

“The NASA suborbital program has produced outstanding science throughout its lifetime.”

“… the extremely short sounding rocket schedule provides an excellent training ground for young scientists and engineers …”

“NASA should strive to maintain and enhance the funding of the sounding rocket program and continue to develop cost savings measures that place additional responsibility and resources in the hands of the sounding rocket PI institutions.”

Suborbital Program

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 5

From the 2002 NRC Decadal Survey

“Low-cost launch vehicles with a wide spectrum of capabilities are critically important for the next generation of solar and space physics research as delineated in this survey.”

Recommendation: NASA should aggressively support … the development of a range of low-cost vehicles.

Recommendation: NASA should develop a memorandum of understanding with DOD … for identifying … flights of opportunity for civilian spacecraft …”

Recommendation: NASA should explore the possibility of similar piggybacking on appropriate foreign scientific launches.

Access to Space

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 6

From the 2002 NRC Decadal Survey

“The Explorer program has long provided the opportunity for targeted investigations, which can complement the larger initiatives recommended by the committee.”

“However … the overall rate at which solar and space physics missions are undertaken is still rather low. A revitalized University-Class Explorer (UNEX) program would address this problem while allowing innovative small investigations to be conducted.”

Recommendation: The scientific objectives of the NASA Discovery Program should be expanded to include those frontier space plasma physics research subjects that cannot be accommodated by other spacecraft opportunities.

Explorer and Discovery Programs

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 7

From the 2002 NRC Decadal Survey

Finding: Suborbital flight opportunities are very important for advancing numerous key aspects of solar and space physics research and for their significant contributions to education.

Recommendation: NASA should revitalize the Suborbital Program to bring flight opportunities back to previous levels.

Suborbital Program

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 8

SEUS/OSNovember 8, 2004

Report of theScientific Ballooning Roadmap Team

http://cosray.wustl.edu/balloon/

Martin Israelmhi@wuphys.wustl.edu

314-935-6263

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 9

Outline of Ballooning Report

• Scientific ballooning has made important contributions to NASA’s programs, providing access to near-space conditions.

• Scientific ballooning will continue to contribute significantly to NASA’s strategic objectives.

• The current balloon program has substantial capability, but funding challenges.

• To achieve its potential for advancing strategic objectives, three high-priority needs are identified.

• Looking forward at the next ten to thirty years we envision exciting new possibilities for scientific ballooning.

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 10

Balloon missions have contributed in essential ways to scientific spacecraft missions.

• CGRO instruments all developed from balloon-flight instruments.

• CMB balloon flights in the late 80's and 90's laid the critical ground work for the design of WMAP.

• Detectors on the RHESSI mission were first developed and demonstrated on balloon-borne instruments.

• The scintillating fiber trajectory detector on the ACE Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer was demonstrated first in a balloon flight.

• On the EOS-Aura satellite, the MLS, TES, and HIRDLS instruments all trace their heritage to instruments that first flew on balloons.

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 11

Ballooning Contributions to NASA Strategic Objectives Space Science Enterprise Strategy – October 2003

• Strategic objective 1.3 – “Understand the origins and societal impacts of variability in the Sun-Earth connection”• “On longer time scales, human society has a real need to

understand the role of solar variability in global changes in the Earth’s atmosphere and space climate.”

• A two to four week Antarctic flight of the Solar Bolometric Imager during the next sunspot minimum in 2007 will establish the baseline for irradiance variations in the near absence of magnetic fields. • It will also test new technology for eventual flight in a decade-

long space mission to map all possible sources of solar brightness variation over a complete solar cycle.

• Other balloon missions: • Flare Genesis• Sunrise

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 12

Recommendations under current fundingThe current funding comes in two parts:

• ~$25M/yr to Balloon Program Office to support operations and technology development.• BPO plans given this budget make sense, so we do not recommend

any significant changes.• However, the funding level is barely adequate.

• ~$15M/yr from SR&T to scientists for developing missions and analyzing their data.• There are many balloon-borne missions that will advance key

elements of NASA strategic plans -- more than will fit into the current budget!

• This roadmap team has not attempted to prioritize among them.• Strengths of the balloon program are that

• Its science is selected by peer review (like Explorers).• It gives opportunity for new ideas, not foreseen in strategic plan.

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 13

High-Priority Needs for Scientific Ballooning

Increased Capability for Long-Duration flights• LDB flight capability for three flights per year from Arctic

High-Altitude (125 kft) Super-Pressure Balloon• Required for gamma-ray and hard X-ray investigations

Issue a UNEX AO under current Explorer guidelines• Balloon payloads would be highly competitive for UNEX.

• Frequent UNEX AO's would provide better, more reliable

support for both balloon missions and Missions of

Opportunity.

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 14

Sounding Rocket Launch RateCode S Sounding Rocket Launches per Fiscal Year

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Years

No

. Lau

nch

es

Astronomy Planetary Solar Geospace

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 15

Sounding Rocket Program Office Budget

FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09

POP 03* $ 44,448 $ 46,865 $ 54,139 $ 56,290 $ 58,090 $ 59,810

POP 04(current values)

$ 44,448 $ 42,532 $ 40,491 $ 42,795 $ 42,786 $ 42,796

(Amount coming to GSFC)

* Adjusted to reflect full cost

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 16

SRPO NOA Procurement Funding

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Budget based on 3% inflationActual NOAs ObtainedPOP 03 NOA ProjectionCurrent NOA Projection

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 17

Impact on Rocket Motors

• Orioles• Contract is in place to buy Oriole motors• SRPO plans to meet contractual obligation using outside

funding sources

• Brants• Contract is in place to buy Brant motors• Limited number of Brants can be purchased (can probably

average 5 units per year)• Inventory will bottom out at about ~7 units under current plan

• Inventory will not grow under proposed program plan• Accommodating all FY06 “want to fly’s” would draw inventory

down to 3 units – inventory build up will be difficult…

• Any surplus funds would be applied to the purchase of additional Brant motors

• There is a low likelihood that “usable” excess funding will be available

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 18

Impact on Flight Operations

• Hawaii missions were cancelled• Estimated ops cost was between $1.9M and $2.9M

(depends on window duration)

• Poker operations still conducted on alternate years• Assessing WSMR approach, but no action

anticipated (if any) before FY08• Kletzing Andoya missions still on• It may be possible to support a “flight or two” from

Sweden or Norway• No planned major mobile operations in current

budget planning once Kwajalein is complete

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 19

Impact on Technology Funding

FY 04 FY 05 FY 06 FY 07 FY 08 FY 09

POP 04 Projection

POP 03 Projection

- Impact of full-cost accounting makes data uncertain- Funding is phased later than desired

~ $ 1M

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 20

SRWG Response to Proposal toReduce Black Brant Usage

from 60-70% to 25% Reducing Black Brant usage to 25% is not viable scientifically and

would greatly reduce the scope of the program.• All Astronomy, Planetary, Solar, Microgravity, Re-entry probe tests

require Black Brants.

• All high altitude auroral physics investigations rely on Black Brant rocket systems.

• A large number of lower ionosphere payloads are too long for surplus rockets (rendering them unstable) and hence use single stage Brants.

• The mesosphere/lower ionosphere research niche that uses surplus vehicles is a vital, important part of the program, but represents only a small portion of the user base.

Surplus rockets are less capable than in the 1980’s and 1990’s, particularly as the Terrier Malemute and Taurus-Nike-Tomahawk vehicles are no longer available.

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 21

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 22

From 1994-2004, NASA Has Flown 264 Sounding Rockets:

223 Science Missions (including Microgravity)

-- 154 used a Black Brant Motor (or 69%)

41 Test, Student, DoD Missions

-- 4 used a Black Brant Motor (10%)

Overall: 60% of all NASA Sounding Rockets in this period

have used a Black Brant Motor.

Sounding Rockets: Use of Black Brant Vehicles

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 23

Research groups would have access to the few available Brants much less frequently, greatly limiting their ability to maintain infra-structure and continuity.• Several university research groups would likely collapse.

• Graduate student programs that rely on the 3-year mission model would suffer.

• The ability of the program to offer test-beds for new instruments would be restricted.

SRWG Response to Proposal toReduce Black Brant Usage

from 60-70% to 25%

The Sounding Rocket Program’s ability to provide “low cost access to space” would be defeated.

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 24

The Future of LCAS, Explorers, and

Missions of Opportunity

Backup Charts

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 25

High Altitude Sounding Rocket

• 1000 lbs. to 3000 km• 40 min. observing time• 40-50 inch diameter• Recovery capability to be included• High re-entry velocities (~ 7 km/s)

Goal: $5M including rocket, nose cone, payload sub-systems, operations

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 26

High Altitude Sounding Rocket Astronomy / Planetary / Solar

• Increased “hang time” of 40 minutes and larger diameter (~ 1 m) telescopes will provide greater sensitivity (e.g., observing extra-galactic and other faint objects become feasible) and higher angular resolution.

• Longer observing times introduce: • new class of experiments (e.g. IR Payloads that need to cool

down)• ability to track temporal evolution of solar phenomena• larger number of targets to be observed on a given flight

• Provides competitive observational capabilities not available on Hubble (e.g., rockets can carry out “diffuse” experiments, observe objects near the sun, such as Venus, Mercury, comets)

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 27

High Altitude Sounding RocketGeophysics

(Magnetosphere/Ionosphere/Thermosphere/Mesosphere)

• Ability to penetrate the aurora and cusp acceleration regions ( > 2500 km), and linger within these regions at low velocities

• Provides ability to observe high altitude regions with constellations of well-instrumented sub-payloads

• Observe magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling resonances and wave interactions with periods of 10’s of minutes

• Study inner radiation belt and slot region from Wallops

• Observe evolution and impact of magnetic storms on mid-latitude geospace for considerably longer times

• Instrumentation testing (e.g., high velocity environment during re-entry in lower ionosphere provides for GEC prototype tests).

16-17 November 2004 SSSC Community Workshop 28

High Altitude Sounding RocketOther Mission Types

• Microgravity Experiments• 40 minutes of “ideal” micro-gravity environment (without

vibrations common on human-tendered platforms such as ISS and Shuttle)

• Provides for considerably larger and longer combustion experiments

• Planetary Probe Development and Engineering

(Re-entry testing, Aerobraking, Smart Landers, Aero-capture, etc.)

• All benefit from much higher “re-entry” velocity (near 8 km/sec) achieved on ascent/descent when apogee is significantly increased.