Re-imagining Scientific Discovery with SLS Unique Launch Capability

The scientific community updates their respective decadal surveys every ten years, reflecting on the community’s consensus opinion of the most compelling scientific enigmas and associated missions. These missions face challenges of constrained unique and challenging designs, costs, and long development times - unfortunately limited to the traditional probe, orbiter, or lander launched on a single rocket. This model, until now, has necessarily limited the number of important scientific investigations.

As investigations become increasingly more complex, to achieve increased levels of scientific return, Discovery, Flagship and New Frontier missions will depend on a new paradigm for the mission/launch model to increase the opportunities for mission content and mission deployments while optimizing common trajectories and final destinations within celestial neighborhoods.

Space Launch System’s (SLS) new capabilities enable near and deep space utilization and discovery as an alternative to the traditional LEO commercial rocket operational paradigm. SLS is designed for high energy exploration and discovery as this super heavy lift vehicle enables co-manifested and ride sharing missions, a multi-payload Carrier Concept, Ultra High Departure Energy (C3), and super heavy lift direct injection capabilities with in-space propulsion not previously possible.

SLS’s mission flexibility, consisting of reduced transit times, larger launch windows, and multiple science missions in a single launch, will reduce the cost of scientific exploration and accelerate the pace of discovery with these missions. A potential opportunity exhibiting these benefits will be presented describing the trade study for Icy Giant missions - where a two planet, two spacecraft mission on a single launch would not only reduce flight times to either giant but increase delivered mass.

By offering these previously unconventional options for operations, SLS will empower unprecedented opportunities for scientific discovery, mission success and increased value to the science and astronomy communities, and ultimately humankind.

This session is organized by:

Speaker

James GREEN

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, Space Science Endeavors LLC, The Metavisionaries

United States

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