Publication Date:
2019-07-13
Description:
NASA's asteroid redirect mission (ARM) will feature an encounter of the human-occupied Orion spacecraft with a portion of a near- Earth asteroid (NEA) previously placed in orbit about the Moon by a capture spacecraft. Applying a shuttle analog, we suggest that the Orion spacecraft should have a dominant local water exosphere, and that molecules from this exosphere can adsorb onto the NEA. The amount of adsorbed water is a function of the defect content of the NEA surface, with retention of shuttle-like water levels on the asteroid at 10(exp 15) H2O's/m2 for space weathered regolith at T approximately 300 K.
Keywords:
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing; Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
Type:
GSFC-E-DAA-TN40266
,
Advances in Space Research (ISSN 0273-1177); 58; 9; 1648-1653
Format:
text
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