A new era in human space exploration was the focus of the Summit on the Future of Space at UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training Wednesday. NASA scientist Paul Abell finished the event with a compelling lecture on the new goal to land an astronaut on a near-Earth asteroid by 2025.
Speaking to a group of students and professionals, Abell explained that humans will rely on robotics to someday visit one of the some 8,000 known near-Earth objects. Robotic precursors will help reduce risk, plan for surface interactions, and enable better science return, "which is where the University of Central Florida can help play a role," he said.
"We need to know about the environment before we send humans there," Abell said, citing several potential risks for astronauts, such as deep-space radiation and hazardous ice rocks surrounding the asteroid. He said that human missions combined with robotic assistance could potentially handle these very dynamic worlds that hurtle through space.
The benefits of visiting an asteroid include opportunities for exploration and science, as well as the chance of finding rare resources like water or precious metals. Abell also pointed out that planetary defense is a concern – roughly 20 percent of the known near-Earth objects could impact Earth in the future.
Jose Castillo, a student at UCF and president of the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics UCF chapter, said the day's events included a tour of some of the facilities in Research Park that the university shares with industry and government partners to research robotics.
"One of the demonstrations revolved around a two-wheeled robot and accompanying software that was used to research human-robot interaction," said Castillo. He added that this research "could prove vital to manned missions to NEOs as astronauts interact with specialized robots on the surface of the NEO."
IST director Randall Shumaker said the institute collaborates with the Robot Cooperative Technology Alliance as part of a "five-year research project to understand how to build advanced robots that can operate in partnership with humans in doing complex tasks." IST also works with the UCF psychology department in the Team Performance Laboratory to research "psychological and human factors issues for long-duration space travel."
IST's research could help pave the way for NASA's future in human space exploration to asteroids or even Mars.
"IST is interested in how to train people to perform complex missions safely, as well as in conducting research to understand how people will perform during long-duration isolation beyond Earth's orbit and when rescue would be problematic," Shumaker said. "We would like to understand how to select and train people for such missions as trips to an asteroid or to Mars."
Abell is currently the lead committee member of the Small Bodies Assessment Group chartered with identifying Human Exploration Opportunities for NEOs. Since President Barack Obama announced the goal of a human expedition to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, NASA has been studying various strategies for near-Earth object exploration.
Abell said this type mission would have profound public impact and "provide a dramatic perspective of our place in the solar system."
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