Mission architecture analysis for manned NEA exploration using MAM method

Abstract

Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) have become a hot topic these years for their scientific interests and technological accessibility. Manned NEA mission is a good choice for asteroid on-site exploration as well as a stepping stone for future manned deep space missions. Focusing on manned NEAs mission architecture analyzing, this paper uses the mission architecture matrix (MAM) method to reduce mission mass scale, for available studies show that simple mission architectures achieving NEAs all require LEO launching mass exceeding available space carrying capacity. By developing a series of mission architectures based on manned spacecraft system design method, the mass scale is estimated according to mission data of 63 most accessible NEA targets. It is discovered that with advanced mission architectures, maximum LEO launching mass can be significantly reduced by separate launching, rendezvous, and docking. The original on-orbit mass about 300–400 metric tons (mT) is reduced to 200–250 mTs, and the maximum launching mass is reduced to only about 70–100 mTs in several cases. This provides us a high possibility to launch manned NEA missions in the near future. In addition, this method can be used in mission mass scale analysis to other deep space targets. Advanced mission architecture also brings challenges on reliability, which plays another key role in mission design. The balance between mass scale and reliability needs to be kept in future works.