Conceptual design of a human mission to the near-earth asteroid 1999 AO10 in 2025-2026

A human mission to the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) 1999 AOlO in 2025-2026 represents an intermediate and incremental step towards the human exploration of Mars. It would bring a large suite of benefits: high scientific return, operational experience on human space exploration missions beyond LEO, tests of technologies and assessment of human factors for future long-duration missions, tests of asteroid collision avoidance techniques and nevertheless evaluation of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). A space system modular architecture composed of 5 elements: 1 NASA Orion MPCV-like Command Module (CM), 1 Mission Habitation Module (MM) and 3 Propulsions Modules (PMl, PM2 and a Service Module SM of the CM), that use chemical storable cryogenic propulsion for the main orbital maneuvers (total ΔV = 7.23 km/s), is able to send in 2025-2026 a crew of 3 astronauts to the NEA 1999 AO10 for a space mission lasting 165 days, and bring them back safely to the Earth. The whole 5 modules Spacecraft (S/C) of almost 240 MT in total is launched separately by 2 equal crew and cargo Heavy Lift Launcher Vehicle (HLLV) of around 125 MT, still to be developed. The assembly in LEO anticipates the injection into the NEA Transfer Orbit (NTO) by the PMl, then expended. Once the S/C is in proximity of the asteroid, a rendez-vous maneuver is performed by the PM2, successively expended. Afterwards the MM, CM and SM attend a docking to a pre-installed platform, anchored on the NEA surface by a previous robotic mission. After 14 days of operations, including the deployment of instrumentation and the performance of high challenging EVAs, the remained 3 modules S/C come back to the Earth where the CM, with the crew on board, shall be able to land safely after an atmospheric direct re-entry. The S/C preliminary design includes the determination of S/C modules power budgets, the S/C elements interfaces functional analysis, the S/C subsystems definition and top-level functions allocation, nevertheless the assessment of preliminary single modules and whole space system mass budgets. The space human mission the NEA 1999 AO10 would be the first human expedition to an interplanetary body beyond the Earth-Moon system. The challenge of increasing the interest of the international community on the human spaceflight and inspiring the new generations about science, technology and space has been accepted. Copyright ©2011 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved.