HUMAN EXPEDITION TO A NEAR EARTH ASTEROID: REFERENCE MISSION AND TECHNOLOGIES

The human exploration of multiple space destinations (e.g Cis-lunar, NEAs), in view of the final challenge of sending astronauts to Mars, represents a current and consistent study domain especially in terms of its possible scenarios and mission architectures assessments, as proved by the numerous on- going activities on this topic, overall the Global Exploration Roadmap work. After proposing a flexible path scenario, a detailed characterization of a Design Reference Missions (DRM) to one of the intermediate destinations represents a necessity in order to evaluate the feasibility and affordability of human space exploration missions, specifically in terms of enabling technological capabilities. A human expedition to a NEA, milestone also of the GER ‘Asteroid Next’ scenario, is considered the mission that would offer a large suite of benefits in terms of scientific return, operational experience and familiarity on human deep space missions, test of technologies and assessment of human factors for future long-duration expeditions (including planetary bodies), evaluation of In- Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) and, more specifically, opportunity to test asteroid collision avoidance techniques. In the proposed paper a DRM of a human expedition to a NEA is characterized in terms of strategy, missions, architectures, space system elements and technologies. Several options have been considered at the different levels of the reference mission design, and trade-offs among them have been carried out. Within the paper the different traded options, as well as the final results, for the most relevant and crucial aspects of the mission (e.g. ΔV, Mission Duration, Crew, Operations...) are reported, in order to justify and support the major study choices. Once the space system elements have been identified, an overview of the critical technological areas, sub-areas and the specific enabling key technologies that, at the status of the art, require deeper studies, developments and assessments, is illustrated. The proposed DRM to a NEA would represent a milestone in human space exploration, the result of a detailed and justified process of scenario and strategies evaluation, and the starting point for the characterization of the elements subsystems and the required technologies developments. The final goal is to perform multiple destinations deep space human exploration missions in the next few decades, achieving the globally shared mission objectives and incrementally prepare the path towards the first human mission to Mars.