Legacy of the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM)

Abstract

NASA’s proposed Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) began with the recognition in a 2010 NASA study that emerging high-power solar electric propulsion technology could be used to rendezvous with, capture, and return an entire, very small (~10,000 kg), near Earth asteroid to the International Space Station. A 2011 workshop by the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) extended this NASA study to asteroid masses of order 500,000 kg by returning them to cislunar space. Subsequent detailed NASA studies in 2013-2014 confirmed the feasibility of this concept. This led to the establishment of the Asteroid Redirect Mission program that consisted of a robotic mission to return multiple tons of asteroid material to cislunar space and a crewed mission to rendezvous with the robotic vehicle, perform two extra vehicular activities (EVAs), collect samples of the asteroid material, and return this material to Earth. Implementation of ARRM proceeded midway through Phase B before being cancelled in April 2017. Although ARRM was cancelled, it left a near-term legacy of positive impacts to the human spaceflight community, the planetary defense community, the deep space science community, and asteroid mining interests.