Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission feasibility study

The Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) concept seeks to rendezvous with, capture, and redirect to translunar space an entire small near-Earth asteroid with a mass of up to approximately 1000 metric tonnes. It would focus the capabilities of the science, technology, and the human exploration communities on a grand challenge creating a new synergy between robotic and human missions to advance human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit for the first time in 50 years. This paper addresses the key aspects of the ARRM concept and the options studied to assess its technical feasibility. Included are evaluations of the expected number of potential targets, their expected discovery rate, the necessity to adequately characterize candidate mission targets, the process to capture a non-cooperative asteroid in deep space, and the power and propulsion technologies required for transportation back to the Earth-Moon system. A class of distant retrograde lunar orbits that are stable for more than 250 years are identified as potential locations for storing the redirected asteroid. These orbits are reachable by the Asteroid Retrieval Vehicle transporting a 1000-t asteroid and are also reachable by crewed missions using the Space Launch System and Orion. The study concludes that the key aspects of finding, capturing and redirecting an entire small, near-Earth asteroid to the Earth-Moon system by the first half of the next decade are technically feasible. The study was conducted from January 2013 through July 2013 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with Glenn Research Center (GRC), Johnson Space Center (JSC), Langley Research Center (LaRC), and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).