Misson Design Activity 2008

Thursday June 5, 1:00 - 5:30pm

1- Introduction

The Mission Design Activity page presents the material for the Mission Design Activity (previously called the Science & Engineering Session). In previous years, we have studied topics such as:

• AOSC 2007: the killer asteroids: How to study the probability of a killer asteroid and protect the Earth from it.
• AOSC 2006: The Enigmatic Mars: Mars is still a very enigmatic planet: a past with liquid water?, prebiotic chemistry? etc.

Goals for the activity

The goal for this activity is for the students to gain an understanding of the direct relationship between science and engineering. The method we use to achieve this goal is a 4-h activity similar in process, to the early phases of a science mission, instrument or any major engineering project: we reflect and propose a set of science goals, then develop a conceptual design that is presented to and reviewed by a panel of peers. Through this process, the student will gain understanding of the science requirements and skills for project development (e.g., the engineering processes, the requirement flow-down and the risk mitigation).

2. Design for Mission Design Session 2008

• First, read and review the proposed design for the activity (based on last year documents - thanks Rich et al. )
  • Design document for the Mission Design session (v3 - updated by DLM on 05/30 pm)

• Instruction Team:
  • The entire session is facilitated by the Lead Facilitator: Jim Bell with possible support from Sarah and David. Other participant advisers are Emily, Mike and Nino.

• The proposed teaser talks are:
  • Introduction to astrobiology (Nino and David) Intro_oastrobiology.ppt (updated by NM and DLM)
  • Possible habitable zones in our Saolar System (Emily) Astrobiology in the Solar System
  • The engineering process to support unique science (Mike and Jim) TheEngineeringProcess The Engineering Process presentation as a second draft. Updated 5/22/08 @ 10:30am. Comments?
  • From the PDP (thanks Lisa et al.):
    1. Engineering_Design_Cycle-2.pdf: Engineering_Design_Cycle-2.pdf
    2. Skills_for_Engineering_2008.pdf: Skills_for_Engineering_2008.pdf

• Speaker Bio:
  • SpeakerBio-Cooney.txt: Speaker Bio for Mike
  • SpeakerBio-Rice.txt: Speaker Bio for Emily

• During the work in groups, each group has one adviser/expert who is either from Keck
  • The experts/advisers during work in groups are: Al H., Liz C., Emily, Mike and Nino.

• The review panel includes some of the advisers who are experienced on Conceptual Reviews: Al, Liz, Sarah, Emily and possibly David.

including more general resources

• Space Mission to Outer Solar System
• Astrobiology at NASA web site
• The Planetary Society website develop some very interesting topics, including a competition for new mission designs

3. Background material for ideas

• Background on science goals for astrobiology missions: the Astrobiology Roadmap from NASA, below follows the Abstract:

The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap provides guidance for research and technology development across the NASA enterprises that encompass the space, Earth and biological sciences. The ongoing development of astrobiology roadmaps embodies the contributions of diverse scientists and technologists from government, universities and private institutions. The Roadmap addresses three basic questions: how does life begin and evolve, does life exist elsewhere in the universe, and what is the future of life on Earth and beyond? Seven Science Goals outline the following key domains of investigation: understanding the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the universe, exploring for habitable environments and life in our own solar system, understanding the emergence of life, determining how early life on Earth interacted and evolved with its changing environment, understanding the evolutionary mechanisms and environmental limits of life, determining the principles that will shape life in the future, and recognizing signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth. For each of these goals, Science Objectives outline more specific high priority efforts for the next three to five years. These eighteen objectives are being integrated with NASA strategic planning. [..]

• About Enceladus (some hot and recent news..!!):
  • Enceladus facts on wikipedia, Cassini-Huygens page, at the planetary society
  • some interesting news on Enceladus (March 2008)
  • NASA article on life on Enceladus (April 2008)

• About Titan:
• sdarticle.pdf: methanogenic life in liquid methane
• From Emily: There are several bodies in the Solar System that would be interesting to study for astrobiology reasons in addition to Mars and Enceladus: Titan, Europa, Io, etc. The activity could be opened up so that students determine the science goals with consideration of engineering constraints and vice versa.
• AOSC_Eng_Act.txt: Questions from Mike regarding the activity, with answers from David.
• AOSC_MISSION_DESIGN.txt: More ideas and questions from Mike about the Mission Design Activity.

• Intro_astrobiology.ppt: Intro_astrobiology.ppt