Deep Space 1 and the New Millennium Program
by Marc D. Rayman, Ph.D.
Deep Space 1 Deputy Mission Manager and
Chief Mission Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
SCIENCE FICTION
AND SPACE ENTHUSIASTS, as well as space scientists, have
long dreamed of having routine access to space to rapidly face the
unexpected and investigate the universe. NASA has rocketed toward
that reality with October 1998's launch of Deep Space 1 (DS1), the
first mission of NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP).
Space science missions' astonishing and impressive discoveries
have often been at great expense. NASA and the United States cannot
afford to conduct space exploration the way it has been done in
recent decades, yet we now look forward to a future of launching
into deep space every month instead of every year or so.
How do we meet the challenges of such a future? We need to learn
to build spacecraft quickly, to make them small enough to be launched
on inexpensive rockets and to implement them fast enough to reach
their destinations while the questions they are addressing are still
relevant. The spacecraft must also be sufficiently sophisticated
to collect the exciting information we seek, and smart enough to
handle unexpected situations without all of them tying up the precious
and expensive Deep Space Network.
Part of the answer is to introduce advanced technologies. Unfortunately,
that means risk. There will always be a lingering uncertainty over
whether the new systems will work in space the way we predict. As
a result, revolutionary technologies often have inordinate waits
before finding their way aboard space missions.
NASA's NMP is chartered to validate the selected high-risk technologies
needed to make future space exploration less expensive, yet even
more exciting and productive. Throughout DS1's flight, the technology
payload has been rigorously exercised so that later space missions
will be able to use the new capabilities with confidence. This bold
mission took risks so that future missions will not have to. Technologies
that were considered very risky when DS1 launched are now proven
and available to designers who need these new capabilities but cannot
afford to take high risks.
DS1 included a computer software experiment, Remote Agent, one
of 12 technologies validated during the flight. The experiment contained
artificial intelligence that allowed it to "think" for itself to
generate procedures for executing mission goals. Future spacecraft
may rely on this type of software to handle a wider range of unexpected
situations on their own.
Even if a technology had failed on this ambitious flight, we still
would have been able to help prevent later missions from taking
too much risk. In the relatively brief 39 months between conception
and launch, we have solved problems that would never have been addressed
if the new technologies were still on paper or in the laboratory.
This work had already contributed to the technologies' use in future
missions, even before launch. Now, with the remarkable successes
of these systems in flight, many missions that would have been impossible
or unaffordable can be undertaken.
NMP develops, and its missions test in space, futuristic technologies
that will make spacecraft "smarter" and help reduce the size and
mass of future spacecraft, showing how much savings these advanced
technologies will bring in the future. Ion propulsion will permit
faster access to important destinations in the solar system. Autonomy
will reduce the cost of operating such missions. Miniaturized systems
will make spacecraft smaller and less expensive. New, highly capable
instruments will make sophisticated measurements with small packages.
By taking risks with DS1 and subsequent NMP missions to validate
revolutionary technologies, NASA is preparing for when humankind's
robotic (and, eventually, human) emissaries to space are routinely
reporting back inspiring discoveries from throughout the solar system
and beyond.
Industry and academia are closely involved in all key areas of
NMP. Six integrated product development teams (more than 50 companies),
research laboratories and universities are actively helping identify
and develop new technologies and instruments with the potential
to revolutionize space exploration. Created in 1994, NMP forms partnerships
among organizations in government, private industry, academia and
the nonprofit sector so that the expertise and know-how of scientists,
engineers and managers can be pooled as a resource to meet the program's
goals.
American taxpayers should feel proud of their investment in this
program. NASA receives only a small fraction of U.S. tax dollars
and is committed to spending that money wisely, trying to get the
maximum benefit from each dollar invested.
|
