August 01, 2016

NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) standing committee has presented the NASA Advisory Council with a status update regarding the agency’s direction and execution of the upcoming Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM).  Among the prominent updates include confirmation of new target launch dates and information on how NASA will handle partner payloads and the creation of the ARM Investigation Team.

While no major aspects of the ARM flights have changed in recent months, NASA and its various centers and partners have made considerable progress in understanding the complexities and needs involved in the two halves of the mission. “ARM has made significant progress over the last year,” stated Ron Ticker, Deputy Program Director for ARM during the recent ARM briefing to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). Specifically, scientific payload needs for the robotic portion of the mission (dubbed Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission – ARRM) have begun to materialize, as have the overall planning and pre-launch timeline requirements. During the course of the briefing, Mr. Ticker confirmed what NASASpaceflight.com previously reported this year regarding ARRM’s and ARCM’s (Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission) launch dates.

According to Mr. Ticker, “The target launch date [for ARRM] has moved one year to a target launch date in December 2021.  And the availability of the asteroid and the SEP-based spacecraft in cislunar space pushes the crewed mission into 2026.” A member of the NAC followed up on this point, asking about the correlation between ARM and the stated goal of human missions to Mars in the 2030s.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/08/nasa-updates-ambitious-asteroid-redirect-mission/