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New Moon Explorer Mission Concept
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- United States: NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), 2019.
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Abstract
- New Moon Explorer (NME) is a smallsat reconnaissance mission concept to explore Earth’s ‘New Moon’, the recently discovered Earth orbital companion asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (formerly 2016HO3), using solar sail propulsion. NME would determine Kamoʻoalewa’s spin rate, pole position, shape, structure, mass, density, chemical composition, temperature, thermal inertia, regolith characteristics, and spectral type using onboard instrumentation. If flown, NME would demonstrate multiple enabling technologies, including solar sail propulsion, large-area thin film power generation, and small spacecraft technology tailored for interplanetary space missions. Leveraging the solar sail technology and mission expertise developed by NASA for the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout mission, affordably learning more about our newest near neighbor is now a possibility. The mission is not yet planned for flight.
- Subjects :
- Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- NASA Technical Reports
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsnas.20190028699
- Document Type :
- Report