I want to bring up a new NASA solicitation. No, I don’t want to bring to your attention a solicitation (announcement of opportunity), I want to show just how far the announcement and NASA policies have strayed from outcome-oriented, actionable and productive space flight.
go.nasa.gov/JanusRFIA29I – Request For Information (RFI): APOPHIS 2029 INNOVATION (A29I) Using The JANUS SPACECRAFT (A29I-JANUS)
”… RFI is NOT an RFP (Request for Proposal), nor an Invitation for Bid.”
The Janus microspacecraft (dual CubeSats) were built as secondary payloads for the Psyche mission. However, when Psyche was delayed from its Autumn 2022 launch, to Autumn 2023, Janus would no longer make its target asteroid- the flight trajectory didn’t work out. Nor was there a backup asteroid ready, for a delay of this length. Janus, then, was ‘mothballed’ at LaRC.
What, then, to do with two built, tested asteroid probes? One logical plan would be to just find that other asteroid, with its other launch opportunity. There must be something out there, reachable- over 1 million SSSBs (small Solar System bodies) known, and of those over 10 thousand NEOs. Perhaps a comet would suddenly appear, streaking in from the outer Solar System. Since CubeSats are compatible with all modern launchers, there must be some primary payload, somewhere, that meets the launch window. It would be a matter of negotiating the marginal lift capacity (few kg), not meeting the launch date (again, craft already built and tested). We have already heard the community vouch for a pre-2029 Apophis flyby. (The post-flyby is already assigned, to OSIRIS-APEX.)
And now we’ve come to this: NASA must ask for an “expedited schedule” to make a 2029 flyby date. (Of course, the launch is before, maybe significantly before.) “Expedited schedule” when the flight craft are already built and tested. How did we come to this? AstroForge claims– by this December- they will have built (not finished yet) an asteroid flyby probe in ~8 months. Of course, they hadn’t started from scratch. AstroForge had contracted the original (Brokkr-2) build to an industry vendor, but had also been keeping their options open (i. e., future missions). When that vendor screwed it up, AstroForge brought up their in-house effort, to the big time (the renamed Odin craft).
Now, I will say that Apophis is no literal impact hazard. Janus (as per this solicitation) would be for academic purposes. Therefore, in NASA’s defense (and academia too), they are not interested in ‘pretty pictures’ or time-critical intel. The probe results must have scientific value, as quantitative and rigorous data. Any camera must be orthographically and photogrammetrically calibratable and, in flight, (re)calibrated succesfully- no ‘pretty pictures’, this is no mass-market cam for a tourist trip.
And yet, ESA’s Hera mission- the damage assessment, after the DART experiment- will fly one commercial instrument. Its lesser CubeSats will fly one commercial instrument. These are not tourist probes, taking pretty pictures either- the level of commercial cameras, even space-qualified ones- is now quite rigorous.
In case you still don’t get it: NASA wants to propose to plan to maybe study a possible flight someday, if it works out. Meanwhile, a NewSpace company could have gotten from the ‘drawing board’ to the launch pad in less time. Heck, the weight of that NewSpace craft might be less than the paperwork NASA might generate (or, the paper equivalent, these days).
In case you STILL don’t get it: NASA is on course to NOT fly. Per NASA procedure, time, schedule, and money will dissipate through NOT producing results, but producing paperwork instead.