session 8

Title

Hitchhiking to the Moon and Beyond

Description

Based on the significant number of robotic lunar and planetary missions of the last decade, a dramatically increased interest in exploration of the Moon, planets, and small bodies for the purpose of developing human and robotic presence beyond Earth orbit, both for science and space exploration objectives can be expected for the next decades. The renewed interest is broad and international, involving space agencies from the USA, Europe, China, India, Japan, Russia, Germany, UK, and others. Efforts like NASA Lunar Science Institute's (NLSI) rapidly growing global network of affiliates - academic and research institutions which each act as nodes within an existing network of their own partners - create demands for additional payload and flight opportunities, particularly from countries which just started their involvement in lunar exploration and science. In the future, it is expected that there will be more opportunities for ride-sharing or secondary or tertiary payload opportunities to be flown to the Moon and beyond, even as part of commercial enterprises like Google Lunar X-PRIZE missions. This session provides a forum for the exchange of ideas for such small payloads. Examples of such payloads or missions include but are not limited to: micro-spacecraft orbiters, cubesats, small probes, penetrators, micro-landers, hard landers, micro-rovers, secondary payload surface science instruments, distributed network landers, and many more. The focus of this session is on new mission concepts, technology readiness and ride-sharing requirements.

Date

2013-09-27

Time

09:45

Room

307B

IPC members

• Chairman: Dr. Leon Alkalai, Mandala Space Ventures, United States;

• Chairman: Prof. Rene Laufer, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden;

• Rapporteur: Ms. Amanda Stiles, X PRIZE Foundation;