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For many years, NASA and the science community have been asking for a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. There have been numerous studies to evaluate MSR mission architectures, technology needs and development plans, and top-level requirements. Because of the challenges, technologically and financially, of the MSR mission, NASA initiated a study top-level look at MSR propulsion technologies through...
In late 2006, NASA's Constellation Program (CxP) sponsored a study to examine the feasibility of sending a piloted Orion spacecraft to a near-Earth object (NEO - in the broadest definition these are small, primitive bodies that cross Earth's orbit; the most likely and suitable targets for the Orion are those NEOs in heliocentric orbits similar to Earth's). One of the significant advantages of this...
Ball Aerospace has provided hardware for many missions in deep space including the complete flight systems for the highly successful deep impact mission and the soon to be launched Kepler planet finding mission. Deep space instruments include the HiRISE camera at Mars, the Ralph camera for New Horizons (on its way to Pluto), the two Spitzer instruments and the telescope, and the telescope for the...
During 2015, a unique launch opportunity exists that allows for a New-Frontiers-class mission to discover a compositional gradient of small bodies in our solar system. The proposed seven year mission includes a flyby of main belt asteroid (108144) 2001 HM1, a flyby and impactor release (a la Deep Impact) at the Trojan asteroid (624) Hektor (a suspected contact binary) with companion P/2006, and a...
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