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NASA
The view out the front of NASA's Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle simulator features an image of the asteroid Itokawa, which was visited by Japan's Hayabusa probe in 2005. Itokawa serves as the model for the Desert RATS' simulated mission to a near-Earth asteroid.
NASA's Desert RATS team is ready to begin a visit to a near-Earth asteroid next week — a simulated mission, that is.
Since 1997, the Desert RATS crew have conducted summer simulations aimed at trying out the robots and other tools that may come into play during future exploration missions beyond Earth orbit. The "Desert" part of the name refers to the usual locale for the exercises, in the Arizona desert, and "RATS" stands for "Research and Technology Studies."
This year is different: Instead of simulating surface operations on the moon or Mars, the team will focus on a zero-G visit to an asteroid, like the one NASA is planning for the mid-2020s. That means it's not so important to go out into the desert. As a result, this month's simulation is being run out of Building 9 at Johnson Space Center in Texas, the Desert RATS home base.
A mockup of NASA's Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle, or MMSEV, has been outfitted with a display that will show a virtual-reality view of the asteroid Itokawa out the front windows.
"It curves around the windows of the vehicle as a projection," NASA spokeswoman Brandi Dean explained.
Four crew members will take turns living in the MMSEV and exploring their simulated asteroid, using Johnson Space Center's virtual-reality facilities — as well as a setup known as ARGOS (Active Response Gravity Offload System) that can suspend astronauts in the air to make them feel as if they're floating in microgravity.
James Blair / NASA
NASA astronaut Alvin Drew tries out the ARGOS system, which is designed to simulate microgravity.
Communications between the MMSEV and a mock mission control will be tweaked to simulate the light-speed travel time between Earth and an asteroid. There'll be a 50-second delay in voice transmission, going each way. And the MMSEV can move around to simulate the moves that an asteroid-bound crew might feel during a real mission. "We have it on a sled that we can put on an air-bearing floor," Dean said.
The Desert RATS exercise is due to get under way on Monday and run through Aug. 30, with Aug. 31 set aside as a contingency day. After all, even a mission to a make-believe asteroid may require a one-day extension.
To keep up with the RATS pack, check out the team's website, Facebook page and Twitter stream.
Where in the Cosmos
The picture of the MMSEV with a simulated asteroid looming in front of the windshield served as today's puzzle picture for our weekly "Where in the Cosmos" contest on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. It didn't take long for Dug Patnaude and Andrew Russell to figure out that the picture showed a simulated MMSEV — and to reward their quick wits and typing fingers, I'm willing to send them 3-D glasses, courtesy of Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope project. Those red-blue spectacles will come in handy for watching this 3-D video of asteroid Itokawa. Want to get in on the fun? Click the "like" button for the Cosmic Log Facebook page and limber up your fingers for next Friday's contest.
More about mission simulations:
- Astronauts complete undersea asteroid mission
- Crew selected to explore food's final frontier
- Pale-faced crew emerges from mock Mars mission
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
I would have to get a degree in what to do this? Seriously, I would like to know.
Computer science for the graphics or mech engineering for the actual equipment ?Or physics for the theory? Your guess is as good as mine.
We are Going into The Proverbial Toilet and This Clowns Think That everything is Fine and Dandy...
Wake Up Smell The Human Escrement!.
We are in Deep Trouble People!Let's Cut The Crap and start solving our Real Human Problems and Start Day-Dreaming.
God cannot save Us from Ourselves!.
its just a science experiment ..all your trouble's are just a dream...
Dear NASA,
That is all fine and good. But seriously, this is a pipe dream. Do you actually think you will get the extended funding and talent needing to pull the real thing off? Personally, I have lost confidence in our capacity and fortitude to do these sorts of things.
Signed, former manned space missions fan.
Hi Will,
Your letter should be addressed to "Dear Congress". It is not NASA's fault. Congress is to blame for the absence of a consistent and cohesive set of goals and mission timeline for manned space exploration.
They basically tell NASA what their goals are, and overstep their responsibilities IMO, on roughly how to accomplish these goals, by setting restrictive guidlines for hardware and infrastructure, in order to appease specific aerospace industry constituents. On top of it all, Congress provides inadequate funding to accomplish these missions within the requested timeframe.
Look at the Constellation program. It would have been the most ambitious manned space program EVER, but it was passed into law along with record LOW levels of funding by the Congress.
Congress keeps creating these lose/lose situations for NASA, and I have to say, NASA has performed admirably despite the fact.
NASA should be allocated a solid and consistent 1% of the US federal budget, year in and year out.
"NASA should be allocated a solid and consistent 1% of the US federal budget, year in and year out."
Which says nothing about how the money is spent. Not all of NASA's problems come from not enough money. Constellation was too expensive, with a constantly slipping schedule, that ultimately would have given us a capability only slightly better than Apollo. giving it twice as much money to burn through to that end, is not the answer.
Apollo is over, the reason for that architecture no longer apply. Manned Lunar programs don't have to look like it, and can be done with existing, developed, already in production launchers...on the existing budget.
Hi Frank, I would say not all, but most... My main point was that Congress has a bad habit of authorizing (i.e., requiring) programs and missions that cost more than they are willing to pay. Constellation is the worst example of this. The schedule slippage was mostly due to funding. The less you invest in a program up front, the longer a program takes to come to fruition, and the more it costs overall. This is typical, and confirmed by Augustine commission in the case of CxP.
Although technical issues were also encountered, this should be expected when developing new hardware of this nature, but there was no margin for set backs in the budget set by Congress.
Depends on your definition of "slightly". Apollo (Saturn V) payload to LEO was 118mt, while Constellation (Ares I/Ares V) would have been 213mt. Nearly twice the payload!
Orion, salvaged from Constellation, will have habitable volume 50% greater than Apollo command module did, improved technologies, reusability, and greater mission endurance.
Altair (the Constellation lunar lander) would have had 5x the capacity of the Apollo lunar module.
I would say significantly increased capability, wouldn't you?
I don't disagree, however "on existing budget" is questionable, and certainly unproven. Hopefully, you are right!
You better hope they get it right, If you really knew what was going on you wouldn't like it ................
What an ABSOLUTE WASTE OF MONEY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When an asteroid comes for earth (like many in the past), I'm sure that generation will appreciate us starting the work now so we are able to knock or corece it off target then. If we don't do it, then when it does happen, that generation will only have one option - insert thumb in butt and pray.
Besides, these thoughtful steps will get use closer to getting off this rock (which will eventually be destroyed by it's sun).
Trillions of dollars borrowed each year from foreigners, the ones that we spend the most defending and running the largest trade deficits also happen to be the ones we borrow the most from, and this is the kind of thing we are still wasting money on?
Space is paramount. It's one of the only things worth spending money on.
They are talking about light speed, this concept is just a dream, light speed will have to be invented to use it. Maybe in a few hundred years from now they might invent it. As for now, they will have to use what they have to get to an asteroid and back.
SNG, apparently you didn't understand that the reference to light-speed in the article was about the communications lag...maybe you should get a basic science education before you comment again..
Shouldn't they be practising THIS at the Space Station!