Nasa new millennium program

Selection of technologies for a par- Technologies to be validated in New Millennium ticular validation flight requires a match between the flights will be determined in a three-phase process.

In development cost and readiness dates of a given tech- the first phase, identification of a broad suite of tech- nology, in addition to the ability to ready the technol- nologies is given over to six teams made up of mem- ogy for flight given budget constraints and flight bers from private industry, academia, nonprofit orga- opportunities available for New Millennium. This nizations, other NASA centers and government agen- final step will be carried out by program manage- cies, so that they can design road maps for the devel- ment, with consideration given to the balance and opment of breakthrough technologies to meet the sci- interrelationships between high-priority technologies ence goals of the mission.

The groups, called "inte- needed for 21st century science missions. Facilities such as its Microdevices autonomy; microelectronics systems; in-situ instru- Laboratory place JPL in the forefront of emerging ments and microelectromechanical systems; instru- micro-technologies for space flight. As a federally ment technologies and architectures; communications; funded research and development center, the and modular and multifunctional systems.

Laboratory has broad-based funding resources for The teams will make priorities among innovative technology development work. Technologies that design process to reduce the cost of developing a are designated high priority by the teams are expected space flight mission.

Construction of a JPL Project to provide revolutionary advances in capability that Design Center, a computer-aided facility capable of will allow New Millennium missions to leap ahead in creating several spacecraft designs and options in reducing the cost of 21st century space flight. The technologies include their applicability to a wide Laboratory's Flight System Testbed complements the range of missions and their ability to address science Project Design Center in developing concurrent engi-.

Teams are made electrical and mechanical devices that offer new and up of anywhere from four to 22 members. Roughly affordable approaches to collecting science data or to half of the members come from NASA and other gov- providing spacecraft engineering data. The remainder were selected Sensors the size of a computer chip and integrated through an open competition with industry, nonprofit instrument packages will be developed to enable new laboratories and academia based on the technology capabilities and reduce component sizes and costs.

The six integrated product development teams q The instrument technologies and architec- will address the following areas: tures team will define technology validation for new q The autonomy team will focus on software instruments and combine them in a system architec- and end-to-end system architecture that enables ture that reduces the cost of science measurements autonomous spacecraft operation, thereby reducing and makes possible the acquisition of new science the ground operations costs.

Technologies of interest measurements. Deep space and near-Earth missions require and knowledge-based software; and tools for advances in ultra low noise and ultra high bandwidth advanced software architecture. Innovations will be neces- These technologies will support functions such as sary to increase efficiency in higher frequency radio overall mission control, spacecraft sequencing, space- systems, to share transceiver hardware with naviga- craft health and resource management, payload data tion and science data acquisition and to implement collection and analysis, guidance and navigation.

The first New Millennium deep space mission, The integrated product development teams will iden- Deep Space 1 features a kilogram 1,pound tify, deliver and implement breakthrough technologies spacecraft that was launched October 24, Concurrent engineering teams Deep Space 1 will demonstrate 12 advanced tech- will be assembled to carry out flight and ground-sys- nologies that will help enable many ambitious deep tem engineering for each New Millennium flight.

All space and Earth-orbiting missions planned for flight categories of participants will be eligible to become early in the next century. The spacecraft will also be members of any of these teams. This and similar navigation; advanced solar arrays; a minature inte- technology development programs under the sponsor- grated ion and electron spectrometer; microelectronic ship of other government agencies are part of the devices; and a miniaturized camera and imaging spec- nation's technology pipeline, from which New trometer that will take pictures and make chemical Millennium will select its technologies for flight vali- maps of asteroid KD, which the spacecraft will dation.

They are also eligible for form of propulsion has been used as the primary funding to develop relevant technologies through propulsion source in deep space. Spectrum Astro Inc. Marc Rayman is chief mission engineer coordinating their technology development programs and deputy mission manager. Further information is to match those of New Millennium and other NASA available on the web at technology development programs currently in place. The synergy created by these pooled resources and expertise offers benefits to all parties.

Deep Space 2 Two small probes weighing two kilograms 4. The goal of the New Millennium program is to lower the costs and risks for future space missions by developing and validating advanced technologies. In keeping with NASA's philosophy of "faster, better and cheaper," the program will pair NASA with the nation's vast industrial and academic resources.

The new partners, representing all segments of the technology community, were chosen from 50 proposals after a seven-week review process. We hope that the response to our solicitations to join in this exciting venture continues at this level. The six integrated product development teams will cover specific spaceflight technology areas -- autonomy, communications, in-situ instruments and microelectromechanical systems, instrument technologies and architecture, modular and multifunctional systems, and microelectronics.

Loral, Palo Alto, Calif. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa. Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif. Microcosm, Inc. Honeywell, Clearwater, Fla. Space Computer Co. L'Garde, Inc. Related News. Explore More. Both classes of technology experiments help enable NASA's Discovery Program and Explorer Program medium-class, small, and university-class space science missions.

Other NMP projects Deep Space 2, Earth Observing 3, and Space Technology 6 fly new instrument concepts for technological advances as secondary payloads experiments on spacecraft that have other primary objectives. Under either scenario, the technologies flown are proven under strict cost and schedule constraints.