NASA ISAS Collaboration on the ISAS MUSES C Asteroid Sample

Return Mission

Ross Jones, Stacy Weinstein, Brian Wilcox and Don Yeomans

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Pasadena California,USA
email: ross.m.jones@jpl.nasa.gov

Abstract LIDAR,an
IR
spectrometer, an X-ray
spectrometer
and
the
sample acquisition
NASA and Japan's Institute of Space mechanism.
and Astronautical Science (ISAS) have agreed
tocooperateon thefirstmission'to collect With
mass
a about
of lkg,
the
rover
samples from the surface of an asteroid and experiment will be a direct descendant of the
return them to Earth for in-depth study. The technology used to build the Sojourner rover.
MUSES-Cmission will be launched on a The rover will carry three science instruments:
Japanese MV launch vehicle in January 2002 a visible imagmg camera, a near-infrared point
from Kagoshima Space Center, Japan, toward spectrometer
alpha
an
and X ray
a touchdown on the
asteroid Nereus in spectrometer.Thesolar-poweredrover will
September 2003. NASA-provided
A move around the surface of Nereus collecting
miniature rover will conduct in-situ imagery data which are complimentary to the
measurementson thesurface. The asteroid spacecraft investigation. The imagmg system
samples will be returned to Earth by MUSES- willbe capable of makingsurface texture,
C via a parachute-borne recovery capsule in composition,andmorphologymeasurements
January 2006. at resolutions better than 1 cm. The rover will
transmit this data to the spacecraft for relay
NASAand ISAS will cooperateon several back to Earth. Due to
the microgravity
aspects of themission, including mission environment on Nereus, the rover has been
support and scientific analysis. In addition to designed to right itself in case it flips over.
providing the rover, NASA will arrange for Solar panelson all sidesof therover will
the testing of theMUSES-Cre-entry heat ensure thatenoughpower will always be
shield NASAIAmes
at Research Center, available to the rover to activatethe motors
providesupplementalDeep Space Network needed to turn over. Posable struts will allow
tracking of the spacecraft, assist in navigating the rover to position its chassis such that the
the spacecraft andprovide arrangements for camera canbe pointedstraightdown at the
therecoveryofthesamplecapsule at a surface or straight up at the sky.
landing site in the U. S. Scientific co-
investigatorsfromthe U. s. and Japan will
share data from the instruments on the rover 1. Introduction
and the spacecraft. They will also collaborate
on the investigations of the returned samples. NASA and ISAS have agreedin principle to
The MUSES C spacecraftwill carry a camera, collaborate on the ISAS MUSES C mission
 for the mutual benefit of both space agencies. orbiter science and 3 ) sample science. The
Presently,the collaboration includes the MUSES CN science team will perform these
following elements in addition to the existing duties in cooperation with their Japanese
MUSES C misison. NASA will: I ) build and colleges, the rover operations teamand the
deliver to ISAS a rover to be usedonthe orbiter operations team. The science element
surfaceoftheasteroid, 2) provideDSN of theMUSESCNprojectextendsto2007
antennatimeforcommands,telemetryand when the NASAportionofthe asteroid
navigation, 3) provide navigation support for sample is returned to the US for investigation
critical phases of the mission, 4) support the by NASAscientists. Presently, theMUSES
testingand design review of the MUSES C CN science element is supportingNASA in
heat shield at facilities of the Ames Research preparation
the MUSES
the
of CN
Center, 5) support optical and radio Announcement of Opportunity. Via this AO,
frequency observations of the .target in NASA will select the science team members
apparitionscloseto launch, 6) arrange the for the rover instruments, the co-investigators
recovery of the MUSES C sample capsule on for the orbiter instruments and one scientist to
US soil and7)provideco-investigatorsfor participate in the selection of the sample sites
the instruments on the MUSES C spacecraft. and initial sampleanalysis,characterization,
ISAS will: 1) deliver the NASA rover to the curation and division in Japan.
asteroid, 2) provide a mission design that
enables a scientifically valuable rover mission, The mission support element of the MUSES
3) provide informationon
the
sampling CN projectresponsibility
has
the to
mechanism, 4) provide a small portion of the implement the following work: 1) sample
sample material toNASA, 5) allowNASA recovery, 2) DSN interface, 3 ) navigation, 4)
investigators toanalyzethesample material MUSESC heat shield design review and
with ISAS colleagues in Japan and 6) provide testing and 5) NEPA. NEPA is the National
co-investigatorsfortheinstruments onthe Environmentalwhose Act
Policy
NASA rover. requirements must be followed in order to
recover the MUSES C sample capsule on US
1. MUSES CN Project soil. TheMUSESCN Navigation support
consists of assisting the MUSES C project by
NASAhasaskedJPL to implementthe providing estimates
MUSES-C
the
of
NASA portion
of the collaboration on spacecraft orbit (position and velocity) for the
MUSES C. At JPL, the MUSES CN [N for following critical mission events: I ) launch
NASA] project has been established for this and initial acquisition, 2) outbound (earth -
purpose.AtJPLtheMUSESCNactivities asteroid) maneuvers, 3) inbound (asteroid -
f d l into three technical areas: 1) science, 2) earth)maneuversand 4) earth re-entry. The
mission support and 3) rover MUSES CN sample recovery element will
development'operations. work with ISAS and USAF to arrange for the
MUSES C sample recovery capsule (SRC) to
The science element has the responsibility to be targeted for Earth re-entrysuch that the
deliver scientific information to NASA and SRC lands at the proposed landing site [Utah
the public fiom the following three distinct Testand Training Range (UTTR)] with an
activities: I ) rover science, 2) MUSESC acceptable maximum ground landing

2
footprint. The MUSESCSRC landing must descriptionsof the two targets is shown in
also be consistent with the NASA Planetary table 1 . The mission to Nereuswould be
Protection
requirements.TheMUSES-CN launched fromKagoshima,Japan in January
mission andsystem engineering support is 2002 using ISAS's MV launcher. Rendezvous
responsiblefor ensuring that theproject and sampling wouldtake place during April
capabilities meet the project requirements via and May 2003 (see table 2) and the re-entry
workingthrough various mission scenarios. at Earth would be in January 2006. By
Thesescnearios willbe documented in the coincidence, the January 2006 re-entry date is
MUSES-CN Mission Plan. the samemonth as there-entrydatefor
NASA's Stardust mission.

2. MUSES C Mission Table 1. Nominal Asteroid Parameters

The
Mu
Space Engineering Spacecraft
(MUSES)Cmission' is beingmanaged and
implementedbytheJapaneseInstitute of
Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). The
MUSESCprojectwas formally authorized
bythe Japanese government in April,1996.
TheMUSESCproject is presently in its
prototypemodelphase and the flight model
fabrication will start in 1999. The MUSES-C
mission is planned to be the world's first
samplereturnattemptfrom a near Earth
asteroid. The MUSES C project is similar to
Table 2. Mission Operations at
NASA's New Millennium series of projects,
Nereus (2003)
i.e. it has technology demonstratiodvalidation
objectives as itsprimary goals as well as
important science objectives. On MUSES C,
ISAS will demonstratethe following four 1 Acquisition / April 20 I I I I
technologies: 1) Solar Electric Propulsion, 2)
Margin I and I I
Autonomous Guidance and Navigation 1 Mapping 1 April 21 I 2
enabling the spacecraft to make a rendezvous
with theasteroidand also to descendand
touch-down on the surface for sample
collection, 3) Sample Collection technique
Science j
under the ultra-low gravity field, 4) Direct and Leave Nereus 1 May 30 I 1 1.66 1 ""

hyperbolic reentry frotn an interplanetary

trajectory. The primary target for MUSES C
is the asteroid Nereus (4660). The project also
has a back-up target, 1989ML, whose launch
window is 6 months later than that for
Nereus. The best information for the physical
The
spacecraft carries five major science
payloads: 1 ) multi-band visual camera, 2) near
infrared spectrometer, 3) laser altimeter, 4) X-
ray fluorescence spectrometer and 5) the

3
 sampling mechanism.Table 3 describesthe shielded from the Sun.The OMRE is the
MUSES-C science instruments rover's interface to the spacecraft
and
contains an antenna/ receiver for rover-
OMRE communication and a dataline for data
transfer. The rover will uplink at least 8 M b
of data a day to the spacecraft; these science
Table 3 MUSES-C Orbiter and engineering data and will be compressed
Instruments appropriately in consultation with the
engineering and science teams. The MUSES-C
Asteroid Multi-band 5-6" square field of spacecraft will downlink at least 8 Mb of
Imaging Camera view
(MICA) 1000x1000pixel rover data a dayto Earth.
CCD
8-position filter Once
the rover is dropped from the
wheel
Near Infrared 0.85 - 2.1 mm spacecraft, it isexpected to bouncea few
Spectrometer (NIRS) spectral range times before coming to rest on the surface. It
spectral resolution will then orient itself. Due to the low-gravity
0.025 nm
operates within 50 environment, the maximum speed the rover
km of surface with can travel is about 1.5 d s e c without losing
+I0 m range surface contact.. The rover has been designed
accuracy at 50 km
beam divergence: with thecapability to right itself if it flips
-400 m a d ontoits back. Since thefourposablestruts
X-ray
Spectrometer 1 1024
x 1024 are independent, the rover can be commanded
pixels,
(XRS) CCD x 4
chips, 5"x5" FOV to point itself in any orientation. A pointable
Sample
Collection 0 3 separate
samples mirror andactuatedfocusmechanism allow
Mechanism the rover to take panoramic images as well as
microscopic ones.

3. MUSES-CN Mission Theprimary rover science objectives are to

carryout scientific measurementswithits
The MUSES-CN rovermission begins when it entire instrumentsuiteandtotransmitthe
(Figure 1) is ejected from the MUSES-C data before asteroid "night," at which time,
spacecraftontoNereus.Prior to release, the the rover will shut down until sunrise. There
solar-poweredroversits inside theOrbiter- is little non-volatile storage on the rover.
MountedRoverEquipment(OMRE). While Most data not transmitted to the orbiter at the
attached to the
spacecraft, the rover is end of the daily investigations schedule will be
lost. Daily investigations include visual
Figure 1. MUSES-CN Rover imaglng of the terrain and targets of interest,
point spectra in the infrared, AXS spectra,
and soil mechanics investigations using the
rover as an instrument.
Understanding the orientation of the rotation
axis of the asteroid with respect to the Sun
will be critical for rover placement on the

3
 surface to ensure maximum operational ISAS forthe NASA payload is only a little
periods. As a technology experiment, the more than 1 kg. The MUSES CN rover is an
rover is being designed with the capability to experiment of mobility
rover
and
“hop” in low-gravity. If the experiment is miniaturization first and an enabler of science
successful, the rover may be able to transverse measurements
second. This order of
long distances [ 10 - 100 m]. This behavior objectives is also similar tothePathfinder
may enable the rover to stay in the Sun longer Sojourner rover.
to take more data and avoid thermal cycling.
The rover will try to reach and look insideone Thekey rover characteristics are listed in
or more of the craters left by a sampling event tables 4 and 5. The rover can communicate as
to ascertain stratigraphy which will be lost in long as it is powered and has a direct line-of-
the collected sample. The rover will also seek sight to the spacecraft.
evidence for sample modifications due to the
impact process. The nominal rover mission
ends when the orbiter departs Nereus. As a
technology experiment, the rover may include
an experimental optical communications Mass 1800 grams I
capability. This capability, if implemented, Size /14x14x6cm
may enable low-rate communications between
the rover and Earth after the departure of the
MUSES-C spacecraft until the demiseof the
rover.

I Figure 2. MUSES CN Rover Prototme 1

The roverconsists of a rectangular body

I I
The
MUSES CN rover will be a direct
descendant of the technology used to build the
Sojourner rover used on the MarsPathfinder
mission. while being 20 times less massive and
including more capability for scientific
measurements. The total mass allocated by
which is 14x14~6cm in dimension with four
wheels on fourposablestrutsformobility
(see Figure 2). The wheels are 6.5 cm in
diameter,mountedonstrutswhich extend in
pairs from hubs emerging from the geometric
center of two opposing 14x6 cm faces of the
body. Each strut is 7 cm long from the center
of their pivot to the center of the wheel axis.
Each of the six faces of theroverbody has
solar cells so that some
power can be
generated when the rover is illuminated by the
sun from any angle. The top face will deliver
2.9Wattsorientedat45 degreesto the sun
vector at 1.12 A U from the Sun. The top face

5
also has the elements needed to transmit the X0 gg of surface acceleration and an escape
radio signal.. velocity of about 15 -105 cm/ sec. The rover
mobility system will maintain the mechanical
Table 5 MUSES-CN Instruments configuration of the rover if power is lost.
Panoramic and Near- 512x512
Imaging Camera (minimum 256 x The surface gravity on Nereus is expected to
256 )Active Pixel be 8 to 80 Fg and the escape velocity will be
Sensor, I 1.9
micron pixels (max
0.2 to 1 m/s. Withthislowgravity, the
20 micron) gravitational force on an 800 gram rover would
hvo(or three)- be less than 0.08 grams of force. Depending
position focus
camera with a on the model used for the surface properties
scannable mirror to of the asteroid, this low, normal force could
find spotsin focus imply certain mobility problems
for
8-position
filter
wheel(6 for science) conventional wheeled vehicles. If the surface
Near-Infixed 0.9 - 1.7 mm is modeled as having conventional fnction (e.g.
Spectrometer spectral range coulombic friction), mobility
then
the
spectral
resolution
<20 (expect 5 )nm characteristics of a vehicle in theasteroid
Alpha X-ray measureselemental environment will be a slow-motion version of
Spectrometer abundances of the dynamics of an off-road vehicle on Earth.
surface soils and
rocks Ifthe vehicle hitsa0.5 cm bumponthe
surface of the asteroid, computer simulations
Each exterior face has the solar panel mounted showthat it will go morethan one vehicle
on itscorresponding
substrate.
The
solar length into thesky andfrequentlyoverturn.
panels will stay near radiative equilibrium For this reason, as well as the desire to be
with the skyandthus range from115 C at ejected from the host spacecraft at an altitude
local noon to about - 155 C just before sunrise. of a few tens of meters, the rover has been
The thermal operating range the of designed to be self righting and to be able to
instruments is -80 C to 30 C. operate upside down. Theconcussion
of
hitting the surface at 1 c d s e c or after falling
All instruments will fit inside the rover body. from 10s of meters of height are no more than
There will be aviewwindow onthefront falling a few millimeters on Earth.
face for the camera and IR spectrometer. The
AXS sensor will open out to the rear of the For longer-range mobility, hopping is planned.
rover and be placed in contact with rock or A brief description of a long-distance hop(see
regolith by appropriate body/strut motion. Figure 3) will help to identify some of the
inherent technical challenges.
The mobility subsystem of the rover (the four
wheels,fourstruts) is designed to support
nominal mobility and body-pose functions in
full Earth gravity for testing and also designed
to enable significant hops in the expected
worst-case microgravity environment of 8 to

6
 Figure 3. Phases of a long-distance
hoD.
1 1
Forprecisemotionofthe rover tonearby
targetlocations, the rover will roll slowly.
For a wheelradiusof3 cm and a surface
acceleration of 20microgees the corresponding
velocity is 2.3 mmlsec.
Each strut/wheel assembly will also include a
sensorto infer that thewheelis in contact
with the terrain. This sensing will be used to
allow the vehicle to roll onfourwheels
(instead ofjust three,whichwould be the
natural state for a four-wheel vehicle without
a passive suspension), to detect when one of
the wheelshasencountered an obstacle, to
allow the vehicleto "hop" with all four wheels
pushing so that no significant angular
momentum is induced into the body, and to
anticipate contact a fraction of a second before
landing at the end of a hop.
Hopping is viewed as an important
technology experiment for the rover onthe
asteroid. Fine positioning of the rover will be
accomplished by normal rolling motionat
slow speeds of 1.5 millimeters per second or
so. At thesespeeds it is believed that the
gravity force (20 microgee nominal) and other
forces (e.g. Van der Wad's, electrostatic) will
7
allow the rover to maintain at least two
wheels in contact with the terrain at all times.
With contact sensing, the odometry for those
wheels which are instantaneously in contact
should be quiteaccurate (-5%). This
accurate odometry, together
with heading
information derived fromthesun will allow
relatively precise, but slow,
motion to
selected targets on thesurface. For longer
range motion,hoppingisessential.Hopsat
up to 20 c d s e c will permit vertical motions
of hundreds of meters and horizontal motions
up to 1 asteroidradius. Control of the body
pose during the hop will allow mosaic imaging
during this relatively slow maneuver (e.g. 40
minutes) as well as an estimation of the time
and place impact,
of andthe
surface
topography near the landing site.Controlof
the body pose and actuation of the struts and
wheelsjust before and during the time of
contact will allow impact energy absorption,
preventing long bounces.
Orbiter-Mounted
TheRover
Equipment (OMRE) will be a rectangular box
approximately 3 0 x 3 0 ~15cm. The OMRE has
the following functions:1)thermalcontrol of
the rover during cruise, 2) mounting the rover
to the spacecraft during launch and cruise, 3)
ejecting the rover offthe spacecraft at the
asteroid, 4) transmitting commands from the
orbiter to the rover, 4) receiving data from the
rover and transmitting it to the orbiter for re-
play to Earth and 6) housing OMRE
computer.
6. Summary
NASA and ISAS are committed to a
collaboration on the ISAS MUSES C mission.
The collaboration significantly benefits both
space agencies. The collaboration includes
science, mission support and hardware and deliver the promised
technology
and
delivery/operations. ISAS’s MUSES C science results. The projects are fortunate to
mission is the first asteroid sample return have a backup target, 1989 ML, whose launch
mission and NASA’s MUSES CN mission is window is open in July of 2002, half a year
the first mission to operatea vehicle in the later, which
still
maintains
the
mission
micro gravityenvironmentofa small body. duration of four years and returns the sample
The MUSES CN rover willbe 20 times less to the Earth in 2006.
massive thatthePathfinder Sojourner rover
and will carry more science instruments. The References.
MUSES CN roverwill be able to roll, hop and [ l ] Kawaguchi, J. et. al, “The MUSES C,
right itself in the micro gravity environment of Mission Description and its Status”, Third
an asteroid. IAA International Conference on Low-Cost
Planetary Missions, April 27 - May 1, 1998,
Both
the
MUSES and
CMUSES CN Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena
missions
have aggressive technology California.
demonstration objectives as well as enabling
manyimportant science investigations into
thenatureand origin of asteroids, the most Acknowledgment:
importantof which is theacquisitionand The research described in thispaperwas
return to Earth of a sample of a near Earth performedby
Jet
Propulsion
Laboratory,
asteroid.Inaddition tothetechnologyand California InstituteofTechnology,andwas
science aspects the
of
missions, it is sponsoredbytheNationalAeronauticsand
anticipatedthattheMUSESCandMUSES Space
Administration, Office Space
of
CNmissions will attracta good deal of Science.
attentionfrom the public and media in both
countries. The extensive collaboration
between NASA and ISAS on MUSES C, will
provide experiences upon whichboth space
agencies can build for future possible
collaborations on planetary missions.

The MUSES C spacecraft designis now at the

final period of prototype model phase, which
will be closely followed by the Flight Model
fabrication beginning in 1999.TheMUSES
CN project has just performed its Preliminary
DesignReviewand is entering anintensive
design period leading to the Critical Design
Review at theend of 1998.Bothprojects
include a large nutnber of new engineering
advances, which have a significant amount of
development and operations risk. Both
projects are working hardtomanage the risk