UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF HANOI

DEPARTMENT OF SPACE AND AERONAUTICS

SPACE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

GROUP WORK REPORT
By

Nguyen Tran Hoang

Nguyen Tran Tuan Anh

MISSION TO NEAR EARTH OBJECT

ASTEROID 1996 FG3
Lecturer: Emmanuel Hinglais
Rodolphe Cledassou

Centre National dEtudes

Spatiales (CNES)

Hanoi, 13th November 2015

INDEX OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II

LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II

I/ INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II/ PHASE ZERO ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

III/MISSION DESIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3.1

VNEOSAT platform and payload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3.2

Project phases definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3.3

Project organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

IV/ CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
VNSC

Vietnam National Satellite Center

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

JAXA

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

ESA

European Space Agency

MDR

Mission Definition Review

PRR

Preliminary Requirements Review

PDR

Preliminary Design Review

CDR

Critical Design Review

QR

Qualification Review

LIST OF FIGURES

V-cycle of the VNEOSAT project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Project phases definition. Note that: blue is common phase for 4 agencies.

violet for ESA, yellow for VNSC and red for JAXA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Project organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II

I/

INTRODUCTION

The VNEOSAT project is a B class astronomy and astrophysics space mission supported by
the cooperation of four agencies: NASA, JAXA, ESA and VNSC. Launch is planned to be
in 2024. The main scientific objective of VNEOSAT is to analyze the physics, chemistry and
mineralogy of the asteroid 1996 FG3. VNEOSAT will be the answers for our Solar system
formation. VNEOSAT is the first B class mission that VNSC takes part in and be the host of
the cooperation. Thus, this is a huge challenge for the Vietnamese space agency. Due to the
capability of each agency, VNSC decided to
NASA takes the responsibility for launching system.
JAXA and VNSC build the payload of the satellite.
ESA in charge of the bus of satellite and assembly.

II/

PHASE ZERO ANALYSIS

VNEOSAT is a project which cooperate many agencies in the world. Thus, to get the data from
there is difficult, risky and costly, however by cooperation scientific community of each project
member can get full data from the mission by just involve in one part of whole project. The
Science community can contribute to the mission scientific background by submit the scientific
purpose, field of research and data requirement. Four agencies will have overlap requirements,
therefore they can be combine and form new collaboration between scientific community or
labs in each agencies (in here, each agencies represent for each country). The payload will be
build and modify base on those information to form an optimal spacecraft that meet the scientific requirements.
On the other hand, the science policy of each country is also important. Firstly, for NASA
(USA), this is a chance to show their leadership in space industry and they want to get more
impact in Asian countries. Thus, they took the responsibility for launching system which costs
one-third of whole project. Furthermore, NASA have various type of rocket launchers so the
project will have many choices for the mass and size of the satellite. Secondly, for ESA (the European Union), they have experience in developing bus for a complex system such as planetary
mission (Rosetta mission, Cassini-Huygens mission...). Moreover, by designing and manufacture the bus, ESA will have knowledge to combine payloads from other project members.
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Finally, payload will be in charge of JAXA and VNSC. It will be a change for us to write our
name into space.
The project budget amount is 300 million dollars in total, however, each agencies will contribute
for their part. For example, VNSC will have 90 million to develop the lander. We consider this
mission into class B. Depend on the orbit of asteroid we have 3 launch windows in 2022, 2024,
2026.

III/
3.1

MISSION DESIGN
VNEOSAT platform and payload

Platform has basic component of a spacecraft, however the additional part will be added. Basis
component with:
Power Supply Unit: Solar panels and Battery. (Radioisotope thermoelectric generator is
not necessary because the orbit of asteroid still have enough sunlight)
Communication system: High gain antenna, Low gain antenna; 2 independent channel,
one for communication with the Earth, one for communication with Lander.
Attitude and Orbit Control System.
Propulsion system with Ionize thruster for increasing speed.
Structure and protector: Structure with deployment system for releasing Lander, protector
for protecting spacecraft from cosmic radiation.
Avionics: Onboard Computer, Command and Data handling.
VNEOSATs payload consists of:
Orbiter which has the functions are to draw topography, to map the surface of the asteroid,
to navigate the Lander and the most important is to communicate with the ground segment
and the lander. This part will be in charge of JAXA.
Lander which is a rover has an ability to move freely on the surface of the asteroid by the
mapping and navigation of the Orbiter. Moreover, it will able to collect and analyze rock
samples of the asteroid and send the data back to the Orbiter. The Lander is under the
responsibility of VNSC. For more detail, Lander will be included:
Power Supply Unit: Solar panels and Battery. Lander use solar panel, so its important to navigate in on the surface of asteroid.
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 Communication system: for communication with orbiter on Orbiter around asteroid.

Sample taker: to take the sample from the surface.
Sample analyzer: will analyze the sample of surface with chemical component and
mineralogy. Sensors: Thermal, Radiation.
Hi-res Camera and Microscope.
The biggest challenges will be in the part of VNSC. Developing a lander for planetary mission
is not simple, moreover this crucial part of whole project. Hence, ESA have experiences in this
type of mission, and for more interact between the payload and important releasing part, we
suggest ESA to work closely to VNSC for developing Lander. Lastly, the Lander of VNSC will
be the critical technology for the project.

3.2

Project phases definition

In the first year of project starts from 2016, its time for mission analyzing and requirement
declaration. In this duration, the scientific team of each agency will team up and discuss about
the main requirements for the mission, also the engineering team need to cooperate closely to
this part. Twelve months is the time for this task, four agencies need to achieve agreement and
give detail information.
Next two years will be very important, thats time for a preliminary design for whole spacecraft
as well as each payload: Orbiter and Lander.
After finishing preliminary design, its time for Detail design. Starting from this point, each
agencies will work independent of course still need to connection in the whole project team. As
soon as go into detail design, each agencies need to start ordering component for production, for
VNSC some high-tech components need to order from other countries. During this phase, the
design team will have the Structural Thermal Model for simulation and the Engineering Model
for testing the logical function.
In next three years, Each Agency go into Production and Qualification process. For ESA, they
have two year to finish the platform, JAXA and VNSC also have two years for completing
payload include testing. One year left will be the time for assembly the spacecraft and testing
the whole system. This phase end by the end of 2023. During this phase, VNSC need another
team to work at Ground Segment facilities. Because NASA, ESA and JAXA have their own
Deep Space Ground Station network, so VNSC need their own one to contribute to the global
network. This facilities can be used for other project as well.
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We have one year left to delivery to launch pad and prelaunch activities. The Fig. 1 shows the
detail time period for each agency.

Fig. 1: V-cycle of the VNEOSAT project.

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Fig. 2: Project phases definition. Note that: blue is common phase for 4 agencies. violet for ESA, yellow for VNSC and red for JAXA

3.3

Project organization

System manager we choose ESA because they have experience in the planetary mission. The
same with SpaceCraft Manager, ESA develop the platform therefore they will handle the part
to connect with two payload moreover VNSC need to cooperate with ESA for the Lander.
Lander is the most crucial part of the whole mission, and its very complex and important. The
spacecraft need to be deployed from Spacecraft so VNSC and ESA need to work with each
other for this part.
VNSC will build their own Ground Station, so they can manage the data and control the lander
through it. However from the different position, VNSC need to use Deep Space network from
other agencies for communication with Lander.
NASA take all responsibility of launch segment, they have both experiences and resources for
this.

Fig. 3: Project organization.

IV/

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we have advantages and disadvantages for our project. Firstly, this project is a
cooperation between many agencies, we could have the best technology of each agency. Besides, this could be the most difficult for us, we have to adapt the the differences of cultures and
science policy. Secondly, the Lander is the challenge for VNSC. This is the first time VNSC
cooperate with ESA to build up a lander. However, the Lander will be our critical technology
of VNEOSAT project.
Last but not least, the project is just the idea of space master students in USTH but we hope that
it can be true in the near future.